THE ALBUM

Time Stands Still is Ronald's debut album as a singer /songwriter /guitarist and was largely written during the lockdown period although one of the songs was written 40 years ago. Ronald hopes to release further albums and music through this website in the future.

GREAT MUSIC

Time Stands Still is Ronald's debut solo album and contains a wide variety of music styles within the contemporary Jazz genre and is written, performed and partially recorded by Ronald from his home studio on the Isle of Skye.

SKYE BASED

The demo for Time Stands Still was recorded in Ronald's home recording studio on Skye with the final album being recorded, mixed and mastered in North Lodge Studio in Central Scotland. The album contains a mix of styles that have influenced Ronald's musical career over the years.

PURCHASE NOW

Ronald's new album "Time Stands Still" is now available for purchase as a physical copy or digital download. To make a purchase, please scroll down the page to the shop section of the website.

ALBUM REVIEW

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

"No matter what we do to keep ourselves in a manner of which we have become accustomed, sooner or later the itch of denial becomes too hard to ignore, and that which first illuminated our souls, soon comes back to call the tunes and light the path ahead.

Time may move on but it has a wonderful habit of returning us to a familiar place, the position in our lives where we made a conscious decision, where the road forked off in two, perhaps three directions, and whilst we took the right one for us at the time, the ghost of that choice remained intact; so much so that Time Stands Still long enough to allow us to reimagine those choices and a second chance of fulfilling the soul is adjudged to be fair, to be an option worth taking.

For Ronald MacDonald, a debut solo album is long overdue from the former member of Sidewinder, and in honoured tradition the birdsong of Time has called out, the images of the past treasures have come back to life and reintroduced a love that maybe he thought had its place and moved on.

Time is a harsh master to please, but it can be outlandish, it should be fruitful, and from its shadow we must emerge, energised, full of belief, and if we are offered the moment where took a path that saw us become comfortable, then so be it, this time we should confront and defeat the demons of relaxed fear and stride on to produce the heartbeat and reflection of our moment on Earth.

Across tracks such as Tell Me When, Skye High Blues, The Last Stand, It Happens Every Day, and the album title track of Time Stands Still, Ronald MacDonald shakes his own hand as he appears fully formed right next to the younger version who came across the split in the road, takes him by the shoulder and points to the second hand on his watch, after all Time will only stand still for a while, it is up to all of us to make sure we are in position when the time between the tick and the tock moves on.

An album of cheer and subtilty, of grace and time itself, Ronald MacDonald has returned with aplomb to the music listener’s senses.

Ronald MacDonald’s Time Stands Still is out now and available from Birnam CD, as well as ronaldmcdonaldmusic.com."

Ian D. Hall

NEW RELEASE

Buy the new album Time Stands Still by Ronald MacDonald now!

BUY NOW

SHOP

Buy the new album Time Stands Still by Ronald MacDonald now!

UK postage charged by default but if you are a non UK resident you will have the opportunity to pay the appropriate rate for your country before checking out.

ISLE OF SKYE RECORD LABEL

ABOUT RONALD

I’ve had an interest in music since I was a kid in the 1960’s when I used to buy Beatles singles and the singles of other contemporary bands with my pocket money. As I moved into my teens my taste in music changed to so called progressive rock and I started to buy albums and be influenced by bands such as Yes, King Crimson, Frank Zappa and Pink Floyd. By my late teens I had acquired a taste for jazz-funk-soul especially the Scottish variant kick started by the Average White Band and developed by bands such as Cado Belle and Café Jacques. This mix along, with the music of bands like the Crusaders, Steely Dan and Hall and Oates, inspired me into writing my own songs as I went to study Economics at university.

In parallel with my interest in music in my teens I was also keen to play music and the electric guitar seemed a good medium to do that. I couldn’t initially afford to buy a guitar, or the associated gear, so decided to start making my own using the facilities at High School. My first attempt was not a success but with the help of one of my teachers I eventually made a pretty decent attempt at creating a guitar which I learned to play most of the key chords on along with some lead licks. As an avid member of the school electronics club, I was also supported in making my own amplifiers and loud-speaker cabinets and I still have some of that gear today.

As my playing improved, I acquired a nice Gibson SG guitar after working during my summer holidays in my first year at university and started playing in bands for fun with old school mates. One of these bands developed into a band called Flyer with my school mate Martin Shaw on drums, Bill Dick on bass, Janice Millar on lead vocals, John Fitzpatrick on rhythm guitar and on tenor saxophone Bill Innes. The band played a bunch of my songs and we played a number of live gigs over the years and had a regular residency at the Birds and Bees in Stirling.

A crucial aspect in the development of my career path happened in 1978 when I graduated with a degree in Economics. This resulted in me being offered scholarships to study for a PhD at the London School of Economics and Manchester University. However, at the same as I had these offers the manager of one of the UK’s leading rock bands, mentioned in the first paragraph, had heard one of Flyer's demo tapes and offered me a position as a session guitarist at a recording studio that the said group had just completed in London. I was really torn between these two offers but eventually decided, after much persuasion by my parents, to go down the route of being a professional economist and that certainly proved to be a worthwhile and interesting career.

Throughout my career as an economist I maintained an interest in playing and practicing some of my own music on my guitars at home and after Catriona and I moved to live on Skye I started writing some new music again. With the advent of affordable home digital studious this resulted in me being able to produce a high-quality demo album which I have been fortunate to transform into a professionally produced album with the help of the producer Stuart McCredie. The album is called ‘Time Stands Still’ and features 8 tracks comprising 7 songs and one instrumental. I sing the main vocal parts, acoustic and electric guitars, a bit of piano and piano programming along with some bass programming. I am ably supported on vocals by Lorna Osborne, my old mate Bill Dick from Flyer days plays bass on three tracks and Ross McFarlane on drums ensures the whole album has an ‘LA groove’.

I think it’s fair to say the album reflects my musical influences over the years. I’d say in terms of the songs, my main influences are the music of Steely Dan, Hall and Oates, the Crusaders and Cado Belle. In terms of my guitar playing my main influences have been payers such as Larry Carlton, John Herrington, Barry Finnerty and Lee Ritenour. Stuart, my producer, also detects an influence of Toto in my music and he says the music is infused with a groove – an LA groove! I wish I could buy some LA weather for Skye to inspire my music further going forward!

I'm also a keen landscape photographer and my work can be seen in An t-Eilean Gallery, Portree and on www.ronaldmacdonaldphotography.com

GALLERY

Please click the images below to view our gallery. The gallery contains some photos of Ronald's musical past and present, with photos of the bands Flyer and Sidewinder in gig action from the 1970's and 80's along with some of the musicians featured on Time Stands Still.

CONTACT US

If you would be interested in contacting Ronald MacDonald Music, please contact us using the form or details below.

PHONE

01478 612345

info@ronaldmacdonaldmusic.com

ADDRESS

Coille Ghiuthais, Viewfield Road, Portree, IV51 9EU.

RONALD MACDONALD MUSIC

Ronald MacDonald Music produce music from our small recording studio based on the Isle of Skye.

ABOUT US

Ronald MacDonald Music is the outlet for Ronald's music writing and playing. We have just finished producing our first album "Time Stands Still" which is available for purchase on this website.

01478 612345

info@ronaldmacdonaldmusic.com