THE ALBUM

This “raw and rocking” duo album recorded with George Leitenberger fires from the hip with 14 back-to-roots songs in English and German.

Calling on the best of the speakeasy tradition and Americana, we buckled our guns, slung a guitar over the shoulder, and horsed out of Geneva in pursuit of the holy grail — to capture the spontaneous raw edge of live performance … with a minimum of overdubs.

Raw Love was nominated for the German music journalists «Album of the year 2018 award».

“Pushing vintage guitar sounds to the fore, the songs lilt to the varied influences of the blues,Berlin cabaret, punk as well as Americana and the best of the songwriting folk tradition”

An album “soaked in moonshine, poetry, vibe, edge and heartbeat”

Some complex technical production notes

The 14 songs were recorded over 5 days at UFO sound studios in Berlin December 2017, with final dubs marinated, charcoal grilled and put in the can in Berlin in January 2018.

The bombed-out shell of the Berlin UFO studio

The pressing and promotion of the album was gold starred by the generous support of a possé of fine-standing citizens who backed the successful Raw Love crowdfunding. Thank you kindly.

The album was recorded, mixed, produced, mastered and locked in the OK Coral by Andreas Albrecht.

And released like a mustang on the Berlin silberblick-musik label.

The Raw Love sales pitch

The artwork concept was developed by George Leitenberger, with the help of an old friend.

The old friend

A stone in the vicinity of Schwarze Pumpe, somewhere along an incredibly bumpy East German cobbled wagon trail near Hoyerswerda

 

PRESS REVIEWS

The following link is to a radio interview on German national radio:

https://www.deutschlandfunkkultur.de/raw-love-von-george-leitenberger-roddy-mckinnon-raubeiniger.2177.de.html?dram:article_id=434234

Wild West Berlin’s iconic RIAS radio building under a sky threatening snow. In the adjacent school playground through which we took a short cut, we were interrogated by the kids who wanted to know if we were Russians … Russians with guitar cases. From Rushia with Raw Love, Mish Moneypenny.

„Raw Love“ von George Leitenberger & Roddy McKinnon Raubeiniger Punk und balladeske Chansons

Two men, two guitars, wan dug

Artwork: Marcel Delaliberté, and chocolate papers from a supermarket in Prenzlauerberg.

George Leitenberger und Roddy McKinnon im Gespräch mit Andras Müller Beitrag hören.

Sie liegen auf einer Wellenlänge und machen nun auch gemeinsam Musik: George Leitenberger und Roddy McKinnon haben mit „Raw Love“ ein breitgefächertes Album vorgelegt. 

Songs zum Hinhören, Tanzen, mit einem ganz besonderen Gitarren-Sound.

„Lass uns mal was zusammen machen.“ Dieser Satz hat schon so manche Musiker zusammengebracht, wenn sie sich das erste Mal begegnen und feststellen, dass sie musikalisch auf einer Wellenlänge sind.

 Wie George Leitenberger und Roddy McKinnon. Der Eine ist Schotte, der Andere Deutscher. Beide leben in der französisch-sprachigen Schweiz, machen seit Jahrzehnten Musik und veröffentlichen jetzt mit „Raw Love“ ein erstes gemeinsames Album.

Wenn man nach einem Begriff für die gemeinsame Basis sucht, könnte man ihre Musik als „Art Folk“ bezeichnen.

Immerhin treffen hier raubeiniger Punk, bierseliger Rock, dreckiger Blues und balladeske Chansons aufeinander, gesungen in verschiedenen Sprachen.

Songs zum Hinhören, Songs zum Tanzen und auf jeden Fall eine Musik, die, wie kürzlich das „Theater hinterm Scheunentor“ schrieb, „ihren ganz eigenen Vintage-Gitarrensound entwickelt“

The Pony Express come early

LYRICS

Selected songs from the album

Raw love

This is raw love

You’re fast and you’re furious

Your love is making me delirious

You want to skin me alive

Your eyes are dark and mysterious

Your hands are soft and fastidious

You want to skin me alive

This is raw love
You want to skin me alive
This is raw love
You want to skin me alive
You want to skin me 
You want to skin me
You want to skin me alive
 You want to skin me alive

I’m living outside out

You want me outside in

You want to skin me alive

This love this skinless thing

This finger this wedding ring

You want to skin me alive
This is raw love 
You want to skin me alive
This is raw love
You want to skin me alive
You want to skin me
You want to skin me
 You want to skin me alive
 You want to skin me alive

This is raw love

 ©️ Roddy McKinnon 2018

In case you weren’t sure ….

Hairpin

I was born ill and drove life slowly like a hairpin

Born well you lived long and died on a blind bend

You never saw it coming you never saw the end

You never saw it coming you never saw the end

I was born ill like you were born well

and we staggered and we bragged and laughed and we gagged and we fell ill 

We lived well we talked ill of others and we rebel roused and yelled 

at each other like two brothers stuck in jail

a dark mother of a jail

We never saw it coming we never saw the end

We never saw it coming we never saw the end

Sax man blow your horn

I was born ill and drove life slowly like a hairpin

Born well you lived long and died on a blind bend

:We never saw it coming we never saw the end

We never saw it coming we never saw the end:

Sax man blow your horn 

 ©️ Roddy McKinnon 2018

High altitude Swiss inspiration for the letter A

 

Long Gone

Long gone, long gone

 in the winter of my life

And I won't see snow any more

The doctor said I'd be gone 

before the first fall 

long gone, long gone

I'm naked like a tree

indignity of losing all

I don't need clothes any more

The tailor said I'd be gone

before the first fall

Long gone, gone, long gone

Before ice on water 

before frost on the ground

Before the first fall, long gone

Long gone, long gone 

In the winter of my life

I won't see snow any more

Long gone, long gone

Long gone, long gone 

In the winter of my life

I won't see snow any more 

Salute me when you're leaving

 Don't waste your time grieving 

Long gone, gone, long gone

 ©️ Roddy McKinnon 2018

Sleepy Head

Spring it was of its time

 and time it had its place

And spring it came like a girl

with  a yellow coat

And life it in turn did watch 

the girl dressed in yellow

And as it watched, 

it did unthinking

Like my sleepy head on your pillow

With my sleepy head on your pillow

I watch the sky with guesswork as my compass

The map I know is of another love

 another  girl dressed in yellow

Like a shooting star a-falling 

if I were to throw a stone 

The chances are it would miss 

but love will hit when I'm not looking

I'm not looking, because

You make me dream of another world

You make me dream

Late frost will the last word have 

for the buds that push the fruit to swell

Might by morn be frozen dead 

and the feeding fruit born still

Spring has lost its way in time 

and in time she had her place

And spring she came like a girl 

with a yellow coat

Still my sleepy head on your pillow says

You make me dream of another world

You make me dream

 ©️ Roddy McKinnon 2018 

Indian ink … that’s raw

Guitars and Girls

I'm playing my guitar it smells of cigarettes

I'm playing my guitar it smells of cigarettes

But the smoker she is gone

But the smoker she is gone

I loved that little girl she wasn't like the others

I loved that little girl she wasn't like the others

But her perfume it remains

Her perfume it remains

Guitars and girls, guitars and girls

How I love them, yeah

I'm playing my guitar made of rust and dust

I'm playing my guitar made of rust and dust 

The rose wood it is old

The rose wood it is old

I'm playing my guitar made of love and pain

I'm playing my guitar made of love and pain My girl she is young

My girl she is young

Guitars and girls, guitars and girls

How I love them, yeah

 ©️ Roddy McKinnon 2018

World of Thieves 

In this world, this world of thieves

Man he will steal everything 

In this world, this world of thieves

Man, he will steal it all

Look at me, Revista, look at you, Review

In this war of words we might just lose everything 

Cause in this world, this world of thieves

That Man he will steal it all

Everything except our dignity 

Because our dignity must be sold

In this world, this world of thieves

We just might lose it all

Keep your hands in your pockets 

Keep an eye on what’s yours

If you’ve got a door you better lock it

Because

Cause In this world, this world of thieves

That Man he will steal it all, That Man he will steal it all, That Man he will steal it all

©️ Roddy McKinnon 2018

The  album launch party was held in Kugelbahn in December 2018 in the Wedding quarter of Berlin. A rock venue that still has that 1980s memory of the mixed smell of stale beer and cigarette smoke. It also has an indoor bowling alley …

A video of World of Thieves, a song from Raw Love

George Leitenberger & Roddy McKinnon

www.silberblick-musik.de 

© Roddy McKinnon 2018

All rights reserved; GEMA