Rod McLeod

Born in Manhattan and raised in Woodstock, New York, where his mother, Pamela Feeley, was a third-generation resident, Rod grew up surrounded by music. His father, actor Duncan McLeod, and the folk and blues scene thriving in Woodstock and Greenwich Village in the 1960s deeply shaped his early influences: Bessie Smith, Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton, and Leadbelly.

After college, Rod moved to rural Texas, then Austin, where he immersed himself in the mid-1970s music scene. Legendary venues like the Broken Spoke and Armadillo World Headquarters were in full swing—with cheap beer and often no cover charges, groundbreaking music was available to anyone with a taste for it. There he absorbed the Texas Troubadours and outlaw country movement through Willie Nelson, Jerry Jeff Walker, and Guy Clark.

A Tucson resident since 1976, Rod has worked in special education, copper mining, landscaping, and most recently operated a fly-fishing pro shop for 15 years. Political activism has been a consistent thread throughout his life. As a resident musician at Barrio Hollywood events, he performs blues, country, and folk across the Americana spectrum, with storytelling at the heart of every performance.