Electronic Press Kit/Biography

John McDonald

Singer songwriter

John McDonald is a performing songwriter based on the Space Coast of Florida.

Long before he moved to Florida, he was drawn to reggae, rock, pop and world beat music that gives him a warm weather, tropical feeling.

On his upcoming 2021 album titled Islandology, he freely borrows Afro-Cuban, Caribbean and Latin-based rhythms to stir up what he calls a ‘Floribbean’ sound.

Taking a cue from the Floribbean culinary tradition of creatively pairing cuisines from all over the Caribbean, Central and South America, McDonald and his long-time band mates, drummer Kevin Kornicki and guitarist Dale Cinski, playfully blend reggae, rock, tribal drums, Latin percussion, calypso and bosa nova with a dash of Hawaiian.

Kornicki, an aficionado of the Afro-Cuban jazz tradition, drives the energetic, up-tempo vibe of Islandology while Cinski, steeped in flamenco, Latin rock and jazz, adds a smooth, Santana-like tone to the songs.

The first single, Rooftop Island, hit number #1 on the Trop40 hosted by Tropical Americana station Radio A1A in the Keys.

McDonald recently made news by releasing a music video celebrating International Day of Happiness, featuring a song from Islandology called Just Chime In.

Although McDonald, a native Bostonian, moved to Pittsburgh to launch an academic career in European intellectual history, he finished his MA and formed John McDonald & the Mango Men. They were dubbed Pittsburgh’s ‘premier party band’ by the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, opening for the Beach Boys, America and Smokey Robinson.

Among his eclectic mix of musical and literary influences, McDonald includes Peter Gabriel, David Byrne, Sting and Paul Simon’s seminal South African (Graceland) and Brazilian (Rhythm of the Saints) albums, along with Nietzsche, Camus, Dostoevsky and Victor Frankl. His band mates jokingly nicknamed him ‘the existential Parrot Head.’

Backed up by an eight-piece band, John McDonald will happily share his Floribbean philosophy of Islandology on Sunday, May 2, 2021, where it was inspired, the beach: Crowne Plaza Melbourne - Oceanfront.

CD Release Concert Sunday, May 2, 2021

Album details

John McDonald’s upcoming 2021 CD Islandology fits into the genre of 'Gulf and Western' Tropical Rock spawned by Jimmy Buffett and popularized in recent decades by ‘country beach’ artists Kenny Chesney and Zac Brown Band. However, McDonald adopts the portmanteau ‘Floribbean’ to capture his sound.

He discovered Floribbean cuisine in Miami: “I loved this food! It hit me later that my band mates and I kind of emulate these chefs in South Florida who mix and match spices, flavors, and rubs from all over the Caribbean, tapping Jamaican, Afro-Cuban, Central and South American influences."

When McDonald and multi-instrumentalist Dale Cinski quarantined to record the songs for Islandology in drummer Kevin Kornicki’s Merritt Island FL studio during the Pandemic, they intuitively tapped into their mutual passion for tropically rooted music, adding steel drums, island-based rhythms and multiple layers of percussion. "Along with rock, we spontaneously blended grooves from Africa with Latin, calypso and reggae time signatures” McDonald explains.

Listeners will hear tribal drums (Just Enough Madness), reggae (Code Rum), calypso (Islandology, Just Chime In), bosa nova (Rooftop Island), cajun (Countdown to Sundown) and some Hawaiian (Ukulele Luau Dreams).

Islandology was produced by award-winning Music Row veteran Rick Beresford and mixed and mastered by Grammy-nominated audio engineer Eric Torres in The Couch Room, Nashville, TN.

Album