John MacDonald & J Houston Band

Livestreamed on our Facebook Page!

John MacDonald has been singing, playing, and writing for many years.  He claims he is no better than he used to be, but you can hear the natural maturity of experience hands, heart, and soul.  There is a comfort zone that exists for you when you are listening to John play.  A wonderful space to be in.

John won a Canadian Folk Music Award in 2014 for co-writing an album with Amanda Rheaume which was also nominated for a Juno that year, so he certainly has been noticed nationally. He is very much a creative force which is what it’s all about, right?

He also happens to be a skilled luthier and John’s guitars have travelled the world. Of course, tune in to the show and you get to hear one of his builds. These days with covid still out there, John has done a Friday show from home every Friday since March 2020 on Facebook. You can tune in there too.

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The J Houston Band was initially conceived by guitarist/songwriter Jim Houston and bassist Carolyn Houston. The addition of John Chapman on drums prior to the release of the band’s second album ‘The Hunter’ completed the trio. The band went on to record ‘New World Order’ and the recently released ‘Milestone’ which is an earthy bluesy collection of original songs based on the local area and includes the popular Shadfly Shuffle.

The band enjoys the challenge of performing original and cover material as a power trio. Strong elements of blues underscore many of their original songs. The focus of the band is to write, develop and perform an ever growing list of original material.

Highlights of the band include opening for acclaimed blues harpist Carlos Del Junco and J W Jones as well as playing the and Toronto Fringe Fest. The band has also had many songs featured on internet radio in Canada, the United States and particularly in the UK. The band has had a song from their second and third album included in issues of Fireworks Magazine in the UK and is awaiting the next issue which will include a song from ‘Milestone’.

Shawn Sasyniuk has lent his support to the band by providing his superb drumming skills to recent live performances. Shawn has shared the stage with many artists including Juno award winners. He has played drums on several artist’s albums and has engineered, mixed and or produced many others receiving several awards (winner of Outstanding Recording Engineer NOMFA 2019, recipient of producer of the year at the APCM gala, winner of the WCMA award for best francophone album) to name but a few.