Jackie Leven was a Scottish singer/songwriter, storyteller, traveler, and raconteur. A formidable fingerstyle guitarist, he was possessed of a mellifluous baritone singing voice. Stylistically, his work crisscrossed and combined Celtic folk, blues, rock, doo wop, soul, girl group pop, and country. During the late 1970s he co-founded the art punk outfit Doll by Doll and issued four acclaimed albums including 1979's Gypsy Blood. His 26-album solo career began with 1994's The Mystery of Love Is Greater Than the Mystery of Death, and also included 1995's Forbidden Songs of the Dying West and 1997's Fairytales for Hard Men. He collaborated with Pere Ubu's David Thomas on three albums including 2001's Creatures of Light & Darkness. Jackie Leven Said, a live collaboration with author Ian Rankin, appeared in 2005. Wayside Shrines and the Code of the Travelling Man was released in September of 2011, two months before Leven died of cancer at 61.