Artist Name: John Donohoe
Contact/Booking Information:
johndee2@eircom.netVocalist - Yes
Style(s) of Music: country,
Instrument(s) Played: Guitar, banjo
John Donohoe is a singer songwriter from Mullingar, Co. Westmeath, Ireland.
Music has been in my blood from the age of five when I started filling bottles with different measures of water and playing them with a stick to create music almost like a xylophone. This of course was encouraged by my late mother who bought me an accordian on the hire purchase from 'penny dan' in Mount Street Mullingar. She paid for this black spot Hohner accordian at a shilling per week for a number of years. I listened to music in those early days on a electric valve radio when Scotland's Jimmy Shand would have his show on every Saturday night and on Sundays you could 'take the Floor with Dinjo, a ceile music radio show, on Radio Eireann.
My summers were spent in Co. Cavan with my grandparents. In one house there was an old wind-up 'His Master's Voice' gramophone with a box full of old 78's. This would have been recordings of Count John Mc Cormick and traditional Irish marches, reels, classical music etc. In those days around the mid 50's most houses we would visit would have at least one musician in the family and you could usually find a fiddle or a banjo hung up over the mantleplace or an accordian sitting on the dresser. Many of my uncles were all Ireland flute players or fiddle players and some were all Ireland singers.These were my early memories of being introduced to music.
From the time I was fourteen I grew up with all the influences of the sixties and so I abandoned my accordian in favour of a guitar. I started learning all the instrumental music of The Shadows, Duane Eddy, The Tornados etc., and formed a group in Mullingar with Ollie Kennedy called the Young Outlaws. We would run our own dance or hop as it was called in St Mary's Hall and charge two and sixpence admission. All our takings went to hire a basic pa with two speakers and one microphone so that Ollie could sing one song...Ebony Eyes. I joined the Mullingar Brass Band for a while playing trombone and french horn before becoming hugely influenced by The Beatles. After that I played in a couple of different groups in Mullingar before joining several showbands. Amongst these The Dinny Hughes Band, Andy Hennessy, and The Countrymen.
I worked as a disc jockey for several years after this hiring halls out all over the country and running discos, as John Dee Disco Show. I also had a weekly show on Radio Dublin as a dj. I discovered that Navan Town where I played as a dj, didn't have a record shop and so I opened a shop there. Sitting playing records all day and playing records many nights, I began thinking that I would like to have my own studio to record music - particularly my own compositions. I set up Slane Recording Studios and as an engineer/ producer/session musician was associated with over 500 recordings and nearly as many musicians over a 15 year period, recording rock, country,irish punk jazz and classical.
Today I operate the John Dee Studios from my home in Mullingar. It is a 24 track digital with cubase sequencing and continue to record many artists from all over Ireland and organise the production of their cds and tapes. I perform live on a continuing basis and continue to write and compose and have a number of cds available.
Discography:
"There's Floorboards Loose In Heaven" and "I Was Born To Be Free"
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