Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Christy McLeod. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Christy, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Are you able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen?

McLeod Nine is an Americana/Roots musical duo consisting of my husband , Gordon, and myself. We have been performing music together for the past 27 years. We also founded and continue to perform with a well-known Celtic/Americana quartet, Beyond The Pale, Gordon and I currently earn our full time living as musicians and performers and did so from around 2003- 2010. We took a hiatus from full time performing from 2010-2016 and returned to full time musical work in 2016 until the present. However, music and performing were not always our primary income source, Gordon had a long career as an engineer and I was a psychologist and counselor for many years. I performed as a singer and guitarist as a teenager but then put that aside for many years as I raised my son and got an education. When Gordon and I met in the early 1990s we immediately bonded over music among many other shared interests and started performing together. Gordon had always worked as a singer and musician as a second source of income and an avenue of creative expression. He plays many instruments including violin, guitar, mandolin, piano and also works as a recording engineer, producer and studio musician. When we got together he encouraged me to perform with him and his then bandmate, Patrick Thurmond, and the three of us founded Beyond The Pale in 1995. Gordon had developed a love of Celtic music and traditional Irish fiddle playing and Beyond The Pale became very popular in that genre over the next few years. We traveled to Ireland Many times over the next decades to perform and study traditional Irish music. By the early 200os Patrick had left the band and we recruited two other talented members, John Delaney and Betsy Cummings. Although we love playing in Beyond The Pale, we longed for a bit wider and more eclectic platform to perform some of our other beloved musical styles, including our original swing oriented and Americana songs. So we began performing as the duo McLeod Nine in about 2013 and have enjoyed some good successes including being selected as New Folk finalists by The Kerrville Folk Festival and being featured in many large well known festivals and concert series across the country. We have recorded three full length albums and continue to tour and bring our music to a wider audience.
I think we could have sped up our success by recognizing earlier in our careers that the music business , like all businesses , is driven by sales and marketing , and that , as independent musicians, we needed to devote as much time and effort to that side of the business as to we did the creative side of music.
One of the most important aspects of creative success is faith in one’s art and in one’s self. We have been fortunate to have had many mentors and supporters over the years that helped us keep sight of our artistic vision and we really appreciate all the encouragement and confidence of our friends and family throughout our careers.

Christy, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

McLeod Nine Duo performs and tours as a duo, featuring mostly original music in the Americana, Swing and Celtic traditions on fiddle, guitar, mandolins, percussion. We have honed our harmonies, songs and stories into a thoughtful and energetic music experience. McLeod Nine Duo performances range from concerts, festivals, radio and TV appearances, corporate events, weddings and house concerts. We have performed on the Irish radio, RTE, while performing in Ireland. We were part of a Irish music ensemble in France at Le Gran Bal Gennetines. The past several years, McLeod Nine Duo has toured through the West, and have been delighted with the warm responses we have received as well as the excellent opportunities to take in the beauty of the mountains. We, (Gordon and Christy), began playing music together in our first year as a couple in 1994. I was undergoing chemotherapy and Gordon needed a guitar accompanist for his fiddle. He thought playing music would get my mind off feeling so bad. He was right! Playing music together lifted us both up, added to the healing process and set us on a course of performing music in a band since 1995.
As McLeod Nine Duo, we have a love of music from all genres. Both of us are songwriters, and we also like to put our own spin on familiar cover songs. We have been fortunate to receive some coveted recognition including being selected and New Folk Finalists by The Kerrville Folk Festival in 2019. In 2008, Gordon was named winner of the Americana Festival Songwriting Contest in Nacogdoches, Texas, after being awarded also in 2006.
McLeod Nine Duo has recorded three CD’s, as well as Gordon McLeod’s four solo CD’s, two of exclusively Irish fiddle music. Our duo is actively performing and booking tour dates for 2022. Whether a private house concert or a larger festival, McLeod Nine Duo loves to share our music with humor and connect with the audiences. We like to mix in some fun, familiar cover songs as well, so our audience can be actively engaged and sing along.
As a duo, our professional career started when we formed the Celtic-Americana band, Beyond The Pale, in Tyler, Texas, along with Patrick Thurmond. Gordon has played music professionally most of his life in Country and Rock bands, but this was our first experience of being on stage together. Our line-up of Beyond the Pale changed in 2001, adding two DFW area musicians, Betsy Cummings and John Delaney. Beyond The Pale as a quartet is very active playing concerts and festivals, and has recorded six CD’s. We also founded a string ensemble, The Aisling String Trio, with cellist Dirje Childs, and recorded and were active with that group for over ten years. We both enjoyed going to Ireland over a dozen summers and studying traditional Irish music, song and dance with the Masters.
Both Gordon and Christy have been performing music from an early age. Christy began playing guitar and singing in junior high school. Gordon began playing anything he could get his hands on form his pre-school years. He played violin, clarinet and bassoon in school and was a vocal and bassoon and composition major in college before switching to an engineering career. He always worked as a musician on the side and later full-time playing in numerous bands and as a solo performer on guitar, fiddle and as a singer. He is also a recording engineer, producer and studio musician. Gordon of late has been studying classical violin and plays in a string orchestra when our gig schedule allows.

We’d love to hear about you met your business partner.

Gordon and I met in a meditation group in the early 1990s, hosted by our mutual friend and future bandmate, Patrick Thurmond. Gordon and I became friends immediately and started spending time together. We really fell hard for each other and moved in together several months after we met, but our new found bliss was dampened a bit by my diagnosis with breast cancer. In a way, though, it was this obstacle that led to our music career together. I was undergoing chemotherapy and didn’t feel well much of the time. Gordon and Patrick played music together on bagpipes, fiddle, guitar and whistles. Gordon knew that I played the guitar when I was younger and was always encouraging me to play music with them to take my mind off my nausea. It worked! I discovered I really had a knack for rhythm guitar and they sorely needed a people person in the band so I was hired! I played our first gig with no hair!

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

I think both Gordon and I have had to learn to be resilient so that we can continue to do what we love. I recounted earlier how very early in our relationship I was diagnosed with breast cancer and that that obstacle really gave rise to our musical collaboration. Anyone who has ever had a loved one with a serious illness knows the impact it has on anyone who cares about the person who is ill. Gordon and I had to work together to get through the first bout of cancer those many years ago and had many years being cancer free, but unfortunately the past few years have found me dealing with recurrences. But our love for each other and intense drive to keep creating in order to bring joy and beauty to others and ourselves has kept us going in spite of the obstacles. The music never fails us, it keeps us motivated and energized and I don’t know how we would have made it this far without that creative force in our lives. I know we are going to be able to keep going for many more years to come!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.mcleodninemusic.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mcleodninemusic
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLU4vMWwcWE-koh8X-iIeUWD-25Cdjp155

Image Credits
Phil Wirth Randy Brown Lesa Lanier Ron Sullivan