About Doug MacNaughton
I grew up in Brandon, Manitoba. I played in school band and sang in choirs, but what really sparked my interest in music was listening to Mike Oldfield’s 1973 album “Tubular Bells” – I loved it that the same person played all the instruments! I still have that same admiration for people like Joni Mitchell, Cassandra Wilson, Garth Hudson, John Paul Jones, and the list could go on. I wanted to be the next fire-breathing jazz-rock guitar player like Frank Zappa, Steve Howe, or Mahavishnu John McLaughlin, which meant trying to get into university. Brandon University had courses in classical guitar, which I didn’t play, so I had to make the choice between being a tuba major or a voice major. I went for voice…
That led to a really interesting and eclectic stage/concert career, which included singing a Frank Zappa tribute concert with a Montréal based electronic music ensemble, a stint with Les Misérables, a summer at the Stratford Festival, some musicals, a couple of Shakespeare roles, an actor/musician production of Man of La Mancha, some orchestra work, a few operas.
But the whole time, I still had my love of rock, jazz, prog, and other musical styles. I wrote my first songs in 2017, and started hanging around the Toronto indie music and singer / songwriter scene. Five years later, I recorded eight of my own songs, and the rest is future…
I hope you’ll appreciate this album like a fine whisky – a smooth maple taste with traces of Joni Mitchell, Stephen Fearing, Radiohead, and King Crimson, and with a strong finish!
Read more about my classical singing here.
