Music player on Dan's website ׀ Download photos ׀ Dan on Youtube
Brochure copy and short bios. ׀ Full Living Tradition review ׀ www.danmckinnon.ca
"Undoubtedly the hit of Cleckheaton Festival this year... "
Though he can trace his family back to the Skye McKinnons, only a few generations removed from Scotland, Dan himself hails from Halifax, Nova Scotia, in the Canadian Maritimes, an area rich in the musical and cultural traditions of the North Atlantic.
His warm baritone voice, superb guitar arrangements and original compositions have won him widespread praise. Dan's thoughtful compositions and smooth melodies cover the entire folk spectrum, with themes traditional, historical, contemporary and universal.
A gentle unassuming man - one of nature's gentlemen, in fact - who travels around the UK by train and bus with a backpack and a guitar on his annual tours from Canada. Dan has tremendous stage charisma and engages an audience - both hearts and minds. He's equally happy on a large festival stage or a small folk club, telling stories in song. And what stories... tales of the British war brides of Canadian servicemen in the 1940s... the story of how Canadian merchant navy sailors eventually got the recognition they deserved for their war service - sixty years late... tales of his own grandfather and learning about Aesop's fables as a child... the true tale of a bride who wanted the best wedding dress and lost her beau by chasing her dream...
In addition to his many solo performances and recordings, Dan has performed with Symphony Nova Scotia and toured Atlantic Canada and Ireland as part of an International Theatre Festival show about the life and times of Stan Rogers.
Download the Living Tradition article about Dan (pdf) or Read as a jpg
"An excellent night of music from Dan McKinnon at Catshill last night. Great songs sung with a truly awesome voice and introduced with interesting and entertaining chat. A true master of his craft. First time at Bromsgrove but certainly not the last."- Bob Bignell, Brosgrove Folk Club and Festival
Dan McKinon was fantastic on Monday, best we have ever seen him,' - Tudor Folk, Chesham, November 2012
"One hell of a treat to see. He's a great singer, great songwriter, and a great performer." - Mick Peat, BBC Radio Derb
"Dan put down nothing short of a stunning night for us at the Old Oak. Warm, humorous, immensely talented guitarist and a splendid singer of his own songs and those of the great Stan Rogers. A very special performer indeed." - Keith Kendrick, Old Oak Mini-concerts.
"A super man and a fantastic performer with first-rate songs. We book him for Alcester and Arden Festival whenever he's in the UK at the right time of year." - Dave James, Festival Director
"Although not his first CD, Fields of Dreams and Glory is my first encounter with this incredible artist. Hearing Dan McKinnon for the first time reminds me of the first time I heard Stan Rogers or James Keelaghan.” - Rich Warren, Sing Out Magazine, USA
In addition to his own repertoire of well crafted, intelligent songs, Dan also has a complete repertoire of Stan Rogers songs, so in addition to Dan Sings Dan - if you are booking him for your festival you can also have Dan Sings Stan as a completely separate one-man-show lasting up to two hours. Not only Stan Rogers' songs, but snippets about the the life and times of Canada's best loved folk songwriter, who died at the tragically early age of 33. This is Dan's version of Mary Ellen Carter.
Dan is picking up an enormous amount of airplay from all over the world for tracks from his CDs and he's received nominations for two MIANS Awards: Folk/Roots Recording of the Year & Male Artist Recording of the Year! People keep giving him other awards, too: As far back as 1998 he was given the AMTEC Award of Merit in the audio category for the album Between Wind and Water and he was the Nova scotia winner in the tenth and final CBC Atlantic Song Contest for the song, "Lakes of Bras d'Or."
With half a dozen TV and video credits, hundreds of airplays, six CDs to his credit - the sixth. Just Another Day, produced by Paul Mills, Stan Rogers producer, Dan is well established in his native Canada and is rapidly gaining an enthusiastc fan base in the UK and airplay across the world.
Dan flew in to the UK on 10th March, did his first two gigs, but after that he's had to cancel all the rest of his UK tour dates for 2020 due to a directive from the Canadian government for all citizens to return home while they could still get a flight and before Canada closed its borders. He sends his apologies to all club organisers and audience members. He'll be back in 2021.
See Dan's own website for all gig details
Tours Booking Now
April-May 2021
June-July 2022
APRIL 2021
8th
Crail Folk Club
13th
Quarter Acoustic, Hamilton
14th
Cottingham Live
16th
Northwich Folk Club
17th TBC
Springthorpe Village hall, Gainsborough
19th
Beverley Folk
20th
St Neots Folk Club
22nd
Maidenhead Folk
23rd
Deal Folk
26th
Chichester
30th
Ram Folk, Thames Ditton
MAY 2021
3rd
Herga at the Castle
6th
TBC Wrexham
7th
Beehive Folk. Harthill, Sheffield
9th
Guisborough Sunday Folk
13th
Bromsgrove Folk
14th
Blythe Bridge
Potteries Folk
16th
Scrag End Folk
21st
Frodsham Folk