Eclectic guitar: Local filmmaker works with Ohio music legend on new documentary and album
by Jason Webber
Matt Donahue and Skip McDonald. PhotoCredit: Giles Cooper
BOWLING GREEN — The opening scene of Matt Donahue’s documentary Skip McDonald: One Man-One Night...One Life in Music provides a riveting moment.
There stands Skip “Little Axe” McDonald amidst the children’s section of Grounds For Thought in Bowling Green. Armed with his trusty guitar, which had provided music for everyone from Sugarhill Gang to Sinead O’Connor to Donna Summer, McDonald addresses the crowd.
“I’ve had a very mixed up musical career that started with gospel, blues, went to funk, a little jazz kind of thing, hip hop, reggae, dub ... and now I’m all messed up,” said McDonald, 75. “My daddy used to say there’s only two kinds of music — the kind you like and the kind you don’t.”
McDonald doesn’t get hung up on labels or genres. To him, music is music.
“I like country and western, I like city and eastern. I like it all,” said McDonald.
He’s not kidding. In the late ’70s, McDonald was part of the Sugarhill Records studio band, performing on such iconic early rap hits as “Rapper’s Delight” by Sugarhill Gang and “The Message” and “White Lines” by Grandmaster Flash.
A perfect introduction to the eclectic nature of McDonald’s guitar playing are the two albums he’s done with Donahue under the duo name Mad 45 and Little Axe. To date, the pair have collaborated on Tree of Life and the recently released Under the Sun.
Donahue, a musician/artist/filmmaker/educator in the field of popular culture at Bowling Green State University, first met McDonald while working with record producer Adrian Sherwood, and Donahue and McDonald quickly formed a musical bond.
“I met Matt through Adrian Sherwood from On-U Sound Records,” McDonald told The Blade. “Matt would come over to Ramsgate, England to work with Adrian where Adrian and I live. Matt would come over to visit and he and I built up a good friendship and worked together.”
McDonald, a Dayton native who was born Bernard Alexander, said that the collaboration on the two albums, released in 2018 and earlier this year respectively, crossed oceans and was nothing but fruitful.
“We did the early tracking and arranging of the songs in Ramsgate, England at my studio and at Adrian’s studio ... then Matt brought me back to Bowling Green, Ohio where we worked on some of the songs there and we did follow up recordings when Matt would come back to England over the years and when I would come back to Ohio,” the singer said. “Both albums feature a variety of genres that I have worked in over my career — rap, rock, reggae, dub, funk, electronic, and blues.”
Sherwood expressed his joy about McDonald being immortalized in a documentary film.
“Skip has been a big part of my life and his contribution to our label On-U Sound has been the same,” said Sherwood. “The documentary is very important as it is one of the few times he’s opened up to anyone on film. It is a charming and well made filmed insight into Skip. Matt Donahue is responsible for making some great short films and here’s another.”
In 2015, Donahue organized the Electric Guitar and Popular Culture Conference at Bowling Green State University and he invited McDonald to come to Ohio and perform. It was the first time that McDonald had been back in the Buckeye State in several years.
“Skip was sort of the headliner of this conference and we filmed and recorded (his performance),” said Donahue. “It was an absolutely amazing and outstanding performance. We were all just blown away. Our jaws hit the floor right at the first note at this performance at Grounds (for Thought). Over the next few days, we interviewed Skip and we released the performance Skip did as a live album.”
The interviews with McDonald cover his life and career, and interspersed with the footage of McDonald performing live, the result is the 55 minute film Skip McDonald: One Man-One Night...One Life in Music with Donahue, co-writing, co-producing, and co-directing with past Tree City Film Festival chairman Joshua Lightle of Sylvania-based Root Inc.
Post-production was completed last year and the film has been making the rounds of BGSU’s campus and the area since then.
“The documentary was cool as it presented my history in music for the world to see,” said McDonald.
Skip McDonald: One Man-One Night...One Life in Music is now available to view for free on filmfreeway.com.
