Doug MacNearney doesn鈥檛 have a backing band, flashy light show or even a good stage name. But he does have a talent for the banjo, a storyteller鈥檚 touch, and, as of a few weeks ago, a gig lined up at the Jasper Folk Music Festival this September.
The troubadour won the solo/duo competition at the Jasper Folk Festival鈥檚 Battle Royale May 25, earning himself a spot in the festival鈥檚 lineup. In a phone interview June 5, he joked about his apparent lack of flash.
鈥淚 got stuck with MacNearney,鈥� he said of his name, drawing out the 鈥榓鈥� sound for emphasis. 鈥淚 suppose I could call myself The Edge, or something pretentious like that,鈥� he added with a chuckle.
The PEI native works by day as a caribou researcher at the Foothills Research Institute in Hinton. But a couple times a month he digs out his banjo and takes to the stage, delighting audiences despite the lack of a flashy stage name.
MacNearney started playing music about 10 years ago, picking up his dad鈥檚 old guitar around the same time he began learning to play trombone in the school band.
He stuck with the guitar for about three years鈥攅ven taking some lessons鈥攂ut when folk music started catching his ear, he found himself drawn to the banjo.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a compelling sound鈥攊t cuts through whatever it鈥檚 in鈥攁nd I think that probably drew me to it,鈥� he said, citing acts like Elliot Brood and fellow Maritimer Old Man Ludecke as early influences.
Even when he enrolled at St. Francis Xavier鈥檚 undergraduate jazz program for electric guitar, the banjo stuck with him. He survived a single year of the program, before he gave up and switched to a biology degree.
鈥淎fter my first year I moved home and I bought a banjo and I don鈥檛 think I touched my guitar for a month and a half. [That鈥檚 when] it kind of dawned on me that I didn鈥檛 really integrate that well into the jazz program,鈥� MacNearney said.
鈥淚 was much more into writing my own music and having nothing wrong with a three-chord song and some good lyrics behind it.鈥�
He laughed at his early perceptions of what music school would be like.
鈥淚 started in jazz basically as a way to continue playing music while going to school. I thought it was going to be the perfect marriage where I just got to play music all the time,鈥� he said. Instead, he butted heads with some of his old school professors, who didn鈥檛 like MacNearney鈥檚 wandering ear, and desire to bend the genre.
He doesn鈥檛 regret his decision, and if his recent win at the Battle Royale indicates anything, his music didn鈥檛 suffer too much because of it.
MacNearney said that when he plays the Jasper Folk Music Festival later this year, it will be the biggest gig he鈥檚 ever done under his own name. Last year he played the Dawson City Music Festival with his musical compatriot Owen Steel, 鈥渂ut that wasn鈥檛 my own tunes.鈥�
He said he鈥檚 looking forward to playing in Jasper this September, especially since he will almost certainly have a newborn baby by then, and the show could mark his last gig for some time.
鈥淚 may be kind of bleary-eyed, but it will still be a blast,鈥� he said.
聽Trevor Nichols
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