Doug MacLeod’s Exactly Like This and RR’s own Jan Mancuso got nice mentions in the February issue of Oregon Music News:
He doesn’t record other people’s tunes. The masterful acoustic Blues guitarist and singer only records his own. He has done that again on this album which follows up his award-winning There Is a Time from 2013, which won Blues Music Awards’ Best Acoustic Album. He won Best Acoustic Artist Award that year, too.
Co-produced by former Oregonian (and KMHD DJ) Janice Mancuso (we knew her on the air as simply “Jan”) and featuring Oregon drummer Jimi Bott, with Mike Thompson on keys and Denny Croy on bass, MacLeod has spun another web of stories and song destined to catch you and not let you go.
The title refers to his predilection for saying from the stage, “This song is going to go exactly like this.” He asks, “Haven’t you felt slighted when an entertainer says the song is going to go something like this? What’s that mean? The people in the previous town got the real version the other night?”
He’s like that.
Even though all of the songs are originals, he nods in tribute to Louis Jordan, Wes Montgomery, Jerry Reed, Tony Joe White, John Lee Hooker and Duke Ellington.
After nineteen albums, this true troubadour is trying to get to Oregon before long and sing for you.
—Tom D’Antoni, Oregon Music News