Biography
PULL QUOTES
“[David Ross Macdonald] is one of those few songwriters like Nick Drake, Conor Oberst (Bright Eyes), and Josh Ritter that can captivate his listeners armed only with a voice and guitar.”
American Songwriter Magazine
“David Ross MacDonald's vocals, lyrics, and intricate fingerstyle guitar playing bring to mind a collaboration between Nick Drake and a mid-1970s Bruce Cockburn... “
Acoustic Guitar Magazine
"...deft guitar playing ... polished songwriting ... pristine, thoughtful folk rock..."
Penguin Eggs Magazine
The glowing review excerpts above won't surprise anyone who has heard David Ross MacDonald's three CDs or seen him perform at international festivals including Australia's Woodford, Port Fairy, Apollo Bay and National as well as Canadian events including the Mariposa, Edmonton, Stan Rogers, Stewart Park, Live from Red Rock and Ness Creek Festivals.
SHORT BIO - David Ross Macdonald - Australia- folk/roots/americana
Acoustic Guitar Magazine likened MacDonald's vocals, lyrics, and intricate fingerstyle guitar style to "a collaboration between Nick Drake and a mid-1970s Bruce Cockburn".
Ross deals in subtlety, intimacy and nuance with a tunesmiths hand that coins songs and music with a haunting and poignant quality.
Born of a jazz musician father he returned to his musical roots after some years underground as a geologist and now plies his trade not only as an internationally touring songwriter but also as a jazz turned folk-roots drummer for the acclaimed Australian group The Waifs.
Having played with and opened for such luminaries including John Renbourne, Tony McMannus, Kelly Jo Phelps and Chris Smither, Macdonald constantly tours internationally armed with his 1935 Gibson guitar and a carpet bag of songs that he illuminates in his own inimitably reserved yet intense, poetic style.
ABOUT HIS CD RELEASES
On his 2004 release, Far From Here, MacDonald revealed his skills as a singer/songwriter. Acoustic Guitar described MacDonald's originals as “evocative songs with a haunting, poignant quality” while Sing Out magazine enthused over these “thoughtful songs from a pretty damn good guitarist” and compared MacDonald's voice to that of “a young Bruce Springsteen.”
MacDonald released Knuckled Brass and Bone in 2006 and debuted many of the CD's songs to fans while appearing as an opening act for Kelly Joe Phelps in the summer of that year. In a review of the album, the Canadian folk music magazine Penguin Eggs lauded MacDonald's “deft guitar playing” and “polished song writing”, and referred to his music as “pristine, thoughtful Folk Rock”.
What may be news to some is that MacDonald's other gig is not as a guitarist/ singer/songwriter but as the drummer for the Australian folk group, The Waifs, with whom he has performed all over the world since 1998.
Through 2008 Macdonald has been performing internationally at festivals including Port Fairy (VIC), Yackandandah (VIC), Mariposa Folk Festival (ON), Live from the Rock (ON), Stewart Park Festival (ON), Sunshine Festival (BC), Sisters Folk Festival (OR) and the OCFF in Ottawa.
Be sure to check out his live performances as seen on Youtube.com by following the link:
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=david+ross+macdonald&search_type=&aq=f
Instrumentation
David Ross Macdonald - Darkly Soulful Acoustic Folk
Discography
2000 Strings & Fingers (Indi)
2002 Southern Crossing (Indi)
2004 Far From Here (Pepper Tree Records)
2006 Knuckled Brass and Bone (Pepper Tree Records)
Links
| http://www.myspace.com/davidrossmacdonald |
| Agent - Todd Jordan - Paquin |
| Dave's Home Website |
| Dave's Live Performance Videos on YOUTUBE |
| Dave's CDBABY Page |