Biography: Greg McDonald
"Poetic genius" - Rolling Stone
"Captivating" - Q
Greg McDonald is an English singer-songwriter Rolling Stone calls "a poetic genius".
McDonald is currently performing solo and with fiddle virtuoso Gemma Gayner, and recording a new album with producers Steve Knightley and Phil Beer of Show of Hands.
McDonald's hard-hitting narrative songs have won fans from Radio 2 to 6music to Q to MTV and seen him described as "the archetypal folk-songwriter, an English Bob Dylan or Bruce Springsteen".
Current album Tomorrow England, featuring folk legend Phil Beer of Show of Hands, fuses gypsy accordions, folk fiddles and indie guitars to create McDonald's "revolutionary street-folk" sound on ten songs of freedom and redemption rooted in the streets and bars of South London, and is out now on i-Tunes and Spotify through Sugartown / R*E*P*E*A*T* Records.
Tomorrow England has already been embraced by radio, championed by BBC 6music's Tom Robinson, and recognised by the press in the UK and USA, being named an Album of the Year by New York’s Village Voice.
Tomorrow England follows Stranger at the Door, McDonald’s cult debut, recorded in a Camberwell bed-sit for £45 only to become Q’s highest rated independent release of 2009.
Initially championed by John Peel as front man of The Dawn Parade, McDonald’s songs have gone on to strike a chord everywhere from Radio 1 and Radio 2 to XFM, 6music and MTV, while old-fashioned hard-gigging has taken him from South London boozers to shows with Seth Lakeman and Kings of Leon, and celebrated appearances at Beautiful Days Festival and Secret Garden Party. Even Morrissey has been spotted at gigs.
Critical plaudits for The Dawn Parade and Stranger at the Door albums did not lead to commercial success, however, and so in 2008, inspired by Lewisham songwriter Stuart O'Connor's gigging schedule and Devon folk duo Show of Hands’ DIY approach, Greg took a leap in the dark, left the last of many day jobs and turned professional, surviving by playing five hundred gigs on the pub circuit around London and the South East over the next three years.
In 2011, Greg began playing as a duo with fiddle virtuoso Gemma Gayner, debuting at Rochester Sweeps Festival in May and bringing the house down at Cambridge Folk Festival a few months later.
Every Wednesday, Greg hosts an open floor folk and acoustic night at The Trafalgar Tavern in Greenwich. The most picturesque acoustic night in the capital, overlooking Canary Wharf from the Trafalgar's bay windows, the music starts at 8-30pm and new musicians and singers are always welcome.
As Tom Robinson puts it, "Greg McDonald reminds you why you got into music in the first place".
Contact: gregmcdonald@live.co.uk
Greg McDonald official website
Greg McDonald on itunes
Greg McDonald on Youtube
