Cross Bones Blues Tour: July 2017

Jul 27, 2017

OppiKoppi: Me Now (the mango picker)

I'm very pleased to announce that I'll be appearing at OppiKoppi this year. It is probably Africa's largest and best loved festival. I've played a lot of festivals across North America and Britain, but never one quite like this. With a tent hotel- that looks like it came out of a Harry Potter movie- as my headquarters, I'll be playing on a massive, red dust filled set in the high desert. Many of my African friends are also on the bill, so I'm sure it will also be a social time with some musical collaboration!

For those on the inside of the inside of all this, I'll also be playing the Kreef Hotel after party...

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cross bones blues...

Cross Bones. Blues. Life. When you roll the bones you could come up snake eyes. Or you could score big. That's what the Old Man used to say. And now: Africa. This map has places on it with names you can't pronounce on Sunday. Africa. Solo, I'm pushing back out into the desert. The Great Karoo is calling. I've got maybe twenty thousand km of road in front of me here, and I've rolled the bones all over this map. Fifty shows. No place too large, too small, too grand or too humble. I'll bring the Blues to your town.

Diesel fuel and cheap red wine surf the summer heat. Life leaks out around the edges. Death wanders aimlessly. At night, it's cool neon, electric wire. To Have and Have Not. To breathe in and out. It's healing music, the blues. But the blues is also this journey: close to the wire. A journey through life. A place where all things are possible, or should be; where stories hang like dust in the air. Cross Bones.

cross bones tour...

Doc MacLean's second African tour, "Cross Bones Blues," finds him returning to many of the places he visited on his previous, "Zulu Skies" adventure. As if that Tour wasn't big enough, Cross Bones includes nearly 50 shows. From the gala Tour launch at the Canadian High Commission to the massive OppiKoppi Festival, to theatres, cafes, and wild little juke joints... This tour touches most parts of South Africa.

Telling songs and singing stories. This blues came from the Mississippi delta. But before that, it came from Africa. Passed down from mouth to mouth. More than music. A placement of the human spirit. Doc's mentors were the grandchildren of slaves and he keeps their gifts close to the heart, and close to the Bone.

Reflecting Doc's ability to touch South Africans: after only one tour, his fan bases in Cape Town, Johannesburg, Pretoria and Durban now lead all other cities. Cross Bones celebrates this relationship. It's not the money, it's the mojo.

A number of Cross Bones shows will feature collaborations with South African blues and roots artists. MacLean, who was "thrilled" by the musicians he met last year, is working to create opportunities for these artists to tour North America. South Africa and Canada have much in common, and he believes that a broader exchange of artists would serve both well. In addition to fostering cultural, diplomatic and economic contacts, Doc continues to mentor a number of younger artists, and will present guitar workshops as his tour schedule permits.

where it's going...

Sept 29 Arrival in Johannesburg

Oct 4 Reception/Tour Launch, CDN High Commission, Pretoria, w. special guest Albert Frost.

Oct 5 OppiKoppi, Northam, Limpopo
Oct 6 OppiKoppi, Northam, Limpopo
Oct 7 OppiKoppi, Northam, Limpopo

Oct 8 KAYA-FM, The World Show, Pretoria

Oct 9 Mix 93.8, Monday Night Live, Johannesburg
Oct 12 Zone Radio, Cape Town, West Cape

Oct 12 CP 24 Television, Cape Town
Oct 13 Barrydale, West Cape
Oct 14 Ladysmith, West Cape
Oct 15 Barrydale, West Cape
Oct 16 Cape Town
Oct 17 Cape Town

Oct 18 EYE Radio, Cape Town
Oct 18 Cape Town, w. Tim Parr
Oct 19 Durbanville, w. Albert Frost
Oct 20 Cape Town
Oct 21 Cape Town
Oct 22 Tulbagh, West Cape
Oct 24 Beaufort West, East Cape
Oct 25 Kimberley, North Cape
Oct 26 Richmond, North Cape
Oct 27 Bloemfontein, Free State
Oct 28 Pretoria
Oct 29 Pretoria
Nov 2 Pretoria

Nov 3 SONY Balcony TV, Johannesburg
Nov 3 Dullstroom, Mpumalanga
Nov 4 Bronkhorstspruit
Nov 5 Cullinan
Nov 8 Johannesburg
Nov 9 Bloemfontein
Nov 10 Ficksburg, Free State
Nov 11 Welkom, Free State
Nov 14 Pietermaritzburg, w. Timm Parr
Nov 15 Howick, KZN, w. Tim Parr

Nov 16 Wild Coast-FM
Nov 16 Durban, KZN, w. Tim Parr
Nov 17 Eshowe, KZN
Nov 18 Richards Bay, KZN
Nov 20 Umdloti (Durban), KZN
Nov 21 Ramsgate, KZN
Nov 22 East London, East Cape
Nov 23 Kenton-On-Sea, East Cape
Nov 24 Port Elizabeth, East Cape
Nov 25 Nieu Bethesda, East Cape
Nov 29 Cape Town, West Cape
Dec 1 Durbanville, West Cape
Dec 2 Cape Town
Dec 3 Stellenbosch, West Cape
Dec 8 Darling, West Cape
Dec 9 Swellendam, West Cape
Dec 10 George, West Cape
Dec 12 Plettenburg Bay, West Cape
Dec 13 Wilderness, West Cape
Dec 14 Calitzdorp, West Cape
Dec 15 Prince Albert, w. Albert Frost
Dec 16 Oudtshoorn, West Cape

Dates and Route : May be subject to change. Developing schedule reflects current and pending contracts.TBA’s and non-listed dates may be available. V06DEC.

about the artist...

Forty-five years ago Doc was playing Charlie Patton songs in Son House's living room. From back porch to big porch. The storyteller. An emotional remapping of contemporary delta blues. At one time Blues Revue Magazine called him the "Prince of Darkness." There's redemption here beyond the simple, acoustic medium– and an appeal that reaches well beyond the Crossroads.

It's a career built on hard travel and performance. Early roots in Mississippi. Chicago. Atlanta. Canada. The Six. Months and years spent living in cars, sleeping on floors, cheap hotels. Busking the down days. Repeat appearances at some of America's best- and worst- folk and blues venues. A lifetime spent on the Blues Highway with some of it's most significant artists. Millions of miles behind the wheel.

Long ago MacLean established his annual, 100 plus show, National Steel Blues Tour to play all parts of North America. In the process, the Tour itself became legendary. Ice roads to the arctic. Crazy, burning highways through the desert wilds. Hard travel, wrecks, and tough North American weather. And now the Tour is returning to Africa. "No venue too large, too small, too grand or too humble." Even places lost in the folds of the map. The thing that has been carried is again returned.

He's a blues vagabond, writing from the dark side of the highway. A songster from the delta tradition, Doc explored and resided in the rural south at a time when it was much less visited than it is today, and had mentors like Son House, Peg Leg Sam, and Sam Chatmon. Gifted by the grandchildren of slaves, MacLean now sings his own stories and tells his own songs in his own voice. His mostly resophonic, finger style slide guitar pays sonic homage to Patton, House, and Big Joe Williams, while moving forward in a roots based, yet contemporary context.

shared promo materials...

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