"The blues speaks to pain, loss, hope and love, universal experiences that anyone can relate to. It can be structurally simple but musically and emotionally complex."

Terry Donaghue: Blues, Roots & Film Noir

Terry Donaghue began playing music in his teens in the ’60s first playing folk and bluegrass on the banjo in a couple of different groups in his hometown of Sault Ste Marie, Ontario Canada. Later he took up the guitar and more recently the mandolin. He has been writing songs for the past 20 years or so in a variety of styles: folk, bluegrass, roots rock, rockabilly, blues, R&B influenced and reggae influenced. He currently resides in Toronto; is the founder of the Olde Stone Cottage Songwriters’ Circle and for the past 18 years or so has been playing guitar and mandolin in the band Vintage Debris. Terry says: “I remember vividly the music I heard on the radio in the ’50s and ’60s – the local stations with their mix of country and pop and faraway places like Chicago, Detroit and Wheeling West Virginia that my brother and I could pull in on an old tube radio at night when the weather was right. A major shift in my musical life happened in my early years at university when I attended a concert by the Paul Butterfield Blues Band. They blew the roof off staid old Grant Hall and I was transformed. While I had enjoyed the country blues of Sonny Terry and Brownie McGee, Lead Belly and others during the ’60s folk revival. That opened my ears and mind to the music of Howlin’ Wolf, BB King, John Lee Hooker, Buddy Guy, and so many others. The blues in its many forms is a major musical influence for me.”                           (Photo: Toronto-based Terry Donaghue)

Over the past few years, Terry have channeled his songwriting output into a series of original solo albums. “Songs of Love and Longing” was released in May 2020. “Northern Reflections” was released in January 2022. In 2023, celebrated the release of “Shades Of Blue.” Terry Donaghue's release, Looking For Redemption (2024) was a "Film Noir" styled concept album, a sequence of nine original songs in an Americana/ roots/ alt-folk style. Toronto-based singer / songwriter released a new single and video for his song, the bluesy and catchy "I Got A Notion" (June 2025). “I Got A Notion” is a blues single being released as a follow-up to his successful 2023 recording “Shades of Blue”. Donaghue says: “The phrase 'I got a notion to cross the ocean' was in my head one morning this spring as I was waking. That’s too good a line to ignore I thought, so I wrote down this song that day.” The single was recorded at Toronto’s legendary Kensington Sound, engineered and mastered by Vezi Tayyeb. Vezi also added lead guitar, B3. and bass with Sean O’Connor on sax and Al Cross on drums.

Interview by Michael Limnios                    Special Thanks: Sarah French Publicity

How has the Blues & Folk music influenced your views of the world and the journeys you’ve taken?

Blues and folk music opened my heart and mind to the broader world, people and places that existed outside my own small world in a 1950s Northern Ontario small city. At the same time, it has put me in deeper touch with my own feelings and emotions.

How do you describe your sound and songbook? Where does your creative drive come from?

My sound and songbook primarily derive from the wide range of music I was hearing on the radio during the ‘50s and ‘60s from the country, gospel and pop of local stations to new sounds pulled in on an old tube radio my brother and I had from distant places like Detroit, Chicago and Wheeling West Virginia. I call this my “musical DNA".

How do you think that you have grown as an artist since you first started making music? What has remained the same about your music-making process?

I started out as a folkie playing covers mostly of the popular songs of the day. Later I began to feel the need to express myself in some way. Even when playing a cover of something I don’t like to do a note for note duplication of the original. I’ve always wanted to have a little of “Me” in the music even if it’s me wearing a mask.

"Blues and folk music opened my heart and mind to the broader world, people and places that existed outside my own small world in a 1950s Northern Ontario small city. At the same time, it has put me in deeper touch with my own feelings and emotions" (Photo: Terry Donaghue)

What does the blues mean to you? What's the balance in music between technique (skills) and soul/emotions?

To me the blues is all about emotion whether joyous..., sad or oppressed. Dazzling technique can be interesting to watch but to me it’s just showing off. Whether very basic technique, in or out of tune if there’s no “soul” to the music, if it doesn’t resonate with the listener in some way, it’s pointless. The skill for a songwriter or performer is their ability to reach out and touch someone in some way - move them emotionally or get their body moving.

What do you learn about yourself from the blues and what does the blues mean to you? 

The blues helped me to learn more about myself and others - helped me to get better in touch with my own emotions and thus better relate to others. The blues opened a door to  a wider world for me to people and places beyond my upbringing in a small city in northern Ontario, Canada.

As an indie musician, how do you navigate the balance between creative freedom and commercial appeal?

I don’t worry much about commercial appeal. As my daughter pointed out to me several years ago when I said I’d never heard a song she particularly liked, ”Dad, you are officially out of it”.  I lean heavily toward creative freedom. As a 76 year old I’m not particularly in touch with the contemporary musical zeitgeist. What I pay attention to is how a song resonates with me and how people react to a song when I perform it in person. 

How do you approach the process of songwriting, and are there any specific themes or emotions you tend to explore in your music?

I write in a variety of styles and genres that fall under the big umbrella of “roots music”. My songwriting nearly always starts with a a particular phrase that catches my ear or comes to me as I listen to music or conversation.  I nearly always begin with the lyrics and a sense of the vibe I’m trying to create. There are a couple of themes that tend to reappear in my music - the search for “home” , the related theme of the search for love and pain of loss and the healing powers of the natural world.

”The blues helped me to learn more about myself and others - helped me to get better in touch with my own emotions and thus better relate to others. The blues opened a door to  a wider world for me to people and places beyond my upbringing in a small city in northern Ontario, Canada.” (Photo: Terry , writing songs for the past 20 years or so in a variety of styles: folk, bluegrass, roots rock, rockabilly, blues, R&B influenced and reggae influenced.)

What are you doing to keep your music relevant today, to develop it and present it to the new generation?

The blues means a variety of things to me. I’m not a blues “purest” focussed on blues in its various traditional forms, Piedmont, Mississippi, Chicago etc. I’m inspired by those forms but tend to push the boundaries of what some would call the blues. “Pursts” have an important role in preserving various traditions and the music of blues legends. I hope my message to new generations is “honour those who built the road that’s got you to where you are but be creative. In being creative there has to be something of who you are in the music you create.

How did the idea of Looking For Redemption (2024), a film noir styled album, come about?

I had written a couple of story songs a few months apart “Looking For Redemption” and “The Old Road” each inspired by different things. Several weeks later when I performed The Old Road For my Songwriters Circle group, it occurred to me that the character in that song could be the same character that was in Looking For Redemption. Maybe there was a bigger story possibility. The story gradually took shape as I set to work writing other songs to link these two initial ones.

Do you have any interesting stories about the making of previous album “Looking For Redemption”?

One of the first songs I started working on was "Stevie”. What was the story behind the woman in Looking For Redemption. I chose her name early on based on a concept of what her character might be. I had written a verse and potential chorus but got stuck and didn’t like what I had written. One day I happened to see a Youtube video for the song “Sunny” written and performed by a Canadian musician I greatly admire, Stephen Fearing. There was something about the mood and scenario of that song that triggered something for me. I tossed out what I had done with Stevie except for one line and quickly wrote the rest of the song in one sitting essentially, it’s final form.

"Music brings people together, breaks down the walls that keep us apart. I want music to make people think, feel something new, sing or dance together." (Photo: Terry Donaghue has been wrote songs in a variety of styles: folk, bluegrass, roots rock, rockabilly, blues, R&B influenced and reggae influenced)

Is there a message you are trying to convey with your songs/music? What is the role of music in today’s society?

As a songwriter, mostly I write for myself in reaction to something I’ve seen, heard or read, perhaps just trying to understand a bit more about myself. As a performer and recording artist I hope that it might resonate with someone else. Two common themes in much of my music are searching for home and the importance of human connection. Generally, I abide by one of my songwriting hero’s advice (the late great John Prime) “when the muse whispers in your ear, pay attention”. Sometimes what she gives me an upbeat/feel good vibe sometimes there’s more emotional depth and meaning.

If you could change one thing in the musical world and it would become a reality, what would that be?

Streaming services and other platforms please pay artists appropriate compensation for the works! It’s great that you make what I record available anywhere in the world, but you get rich, I get virtually nothing.

Why do you think that the Blues music continues to generate such a devoted following in Canada?

The blues speaks to pain, loss, hope and love, universal experiences that anyone can relate to. It can be structurally simple but musically and emotionally complex.

What moment changed your music life the most? What´s been the highlights in your life and career so far?

A big musical moment for me was hearing the Paul Butterfield Blues Band live around 1970. Up to that point I was a folkie but was losing interest in the music I was hearing. It was lacking something that suddenly became clear to me hearing the power of full-tilt Chicago electric blues. A highlight for me is hearing from a cousin who has some serious medical problems that when she’s in pain and feeling low she gets lost in the first CD I released, and it lifts her up.

"To me the blues is all about emotion whether joyous,., sad or oppressed. Dazzling technique can be interesting to watch but to me it’s just showing off. Whether very basic technique, in or out of tune if there’s no “soul” to the music, if it doesn’t resonate with the listener in some way, it’s pointless. The skill for a songwriter or performer is their ability to reach out and touch someone in some way - move them emotionally or get their body moving." (Photo: Terry Donaghue began playing music in his teens in the ’60s first playing folk and bluegrass in a couple of different groups in Sault Ste Marie, Ontario)

What do you miss most nowadays from the blues of the past? What are your hopes and fears for the future of?

I can’t say that I miss anything of it since it’s still very much with me. The musical and lyrical simplicity yet eloquence still resonates very strongly with me and forms part of what I do and I hear younger folks maintaining and building on the tradition. What I fear most for the future is the economics of the music business. It’s getting harder and harder to make a living as a musician.

What is the impact of music on the socio-cultural implications? How do you want the music to affect people?

Music brings people together, breaks down the walls that keep us apart. I want music to make people think, feel something new, sing or dance together.

How did the idea of Olde Stone Cottage Songwriters’ Circle come about? How do you understand the spirit, music, and the meaning of life?

I had been writing songs in isolation for a few years and was looking for some feedback on what I was doing and how to improve what I was doing. I knew a couple of guys who were writing and performing original material and suggested we get together monthly at a local pub. We gradually expanded and now have a very tight group who all have somewhat different styles but work together very well and have performed live together. The meaning of life?! Well as far as music goes it’s reach out and touch someone, move someone. Good music moves you emotionally, intellectually, spiritually or gets you moving some body part.

What are some of the most important lessons you have learned from your experience in the music paths?

Listen and learn from others but follow your own heart, your own muse. Music is both universal and highly personal. There’s something for all of us. Live a creative life. Keep your ears and mind open.

"I can’t say that I miss anything of it since it’s still very much with me. The musical and lyrical simplicity yet eloquence still resonates very strongly with me and forms part of what I do and I hear younger folks maintaining and building on the tradition. What I fear most for the future is the economics of the music business. It’s getting harder and harder to make a living as a musician."

(Photo: Terry Donaghue)

Life is more than just music, is there any other field that has influence on your life and music?

I’ve been a science nerd all my life, so I guess I’ve always been trying to understand myself and the world around me. Often when I’m writing a song, I’m trying to understand something I don’t understand.

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