Doug MacLeod is a unique, powerful guitarist with a rich and soulful voice, singing original songs based on his own life and experiences. His new album Exactly Like This is his third release with Reference Recordings. This is 'Genuine Original Acoustic Music' at its very best, in a richly detailed recording by Grammy-winning engineer Keith Johnson, made at Skywalker Sound in Marin County, CA. Doug MacLeod isn't just a blues guy, he's a singer/songwriter/storyteller and serious guitarist. He is one of the few modern artists doing all original material and traveling the country like a troubadour.

Hot off the heels of winning The Blues Foundation’s 2017 Acoustic Artist Blues Award, Doug MacLeod presents his Break The Chain, twelve new original songs that explore the breadth and depth of the human condition. In the spirit of the best-loved blues tunes out there, the songs on this album are personal and yet universal, moving from humorous and soulful observations to the satirical and sublime.

Thirteen new MacLeod originals highlight this richly detailed recording by GRAMMY Award-winning engineer Keith Johnson. MacLeod is one of blues’ greatest guitarists. He is joined by longtime bassist Denny Croy and Jimi Bott, one of the most recorded, awarded and respected blues drummers in the world. The trio performs with scintillating precision and synergy.

Thirteen new MacLeod originals highlight this richly detailed recording by GRAMMY Award-winning engineer Keith Johnson. MacLeod is one of blues’ greatest guitarists. He is joined by longtime bassist Denny Croy and Jimi Bott, one of the most recorded, awarded and respected blues drummers in the world. The trio performs with scintillating precision and synergy.

In 2000, you would have been hard-pressed to find a more lowdown blues-oriented recording than singer/guitarist Doug MacLeod's Whose Truth, Whose Lies?, which should appeal to anyone who likes his/her blues dark, shadowy, and moody. This isn't an album that tries to win you over with slickness; whether MacLeod is going electric or acoustic, he obviously identifies with the simplicity and honesty that characterized the country blues artists of the '30s and '40s. Not that Whose Truth, Whose Lies? sounds like a recording from that time. MacLeod's lyrics obviously aren't pre-World War II lyrics, and he has been influenced by soul, rock, and folk as well as country and urban blues. Not everything on this superb album adheres to a 12-bar format, and some of the tunes fall into the folk category. But even when he is getting into a folk or R&B groove, MacLeod can always be counted on to provide a wealth of blues feeling. Whose Truth, Whose Lies? may not be the work of a purist, but it is certainly compelling.

Doug MacLeod's dark singing and sparse guitar playing are a throwback to the country-blues artists of the 1930s, although his lyrics have more modern sensibilities. Much of this superior album is haunting and mildly disturbing, giving one the feeling that there is a great deal beneath the surface. It is the type of blues/folk recording worth experiencing several times, in contrast to those of recent times that express more obvious sentiments. Bassist Jeff Turmes is on just seven of the dozen songs (five of which also include drummer Stefev Mugalian); three of the remaining tunes are duets by MacLeod with percussionist Oliver Brown, and the two others are unaccompanied solo performances. Although the leader's guitar playing is impressive, it is his distinctive and very sincere voice on his dozen originals that sticks in one's mind.