in Donegal which was not far from his ancestral home. It is Ireland’s longest running and best known family festival.
In 1996 he entered a talent contest at the festival and came second singing Fields Of Athenry. He won 50 Punts (Old Irish currency) and a Donegal pottery vase.
He later formed Well Strung duo singing Irish, folk and a little Country; John was the singer and Steve was the bass player from his dad’s band. Steve introduced him to artists like the Eagles and Gordon Lightfoot which he enjoyed.
The duo was short lived and he was soon working solo in pubs and clubs with a mix of 60’s and current songs which he didn’t enjoy at all. He persevered for five years but by this time he was engaged to be married and decided to end his solo career and settle down to family life and a normal day job.
Although now off the road, John didn’t stop singing and after borrowing some copies of New Country magazine from a friend, each of which came with a cd, he began learning some of the songs and soon made a tentative step back into the public eye, initially performing at open mic nights.
He formed another duo, The Backwater Boys, at this time with Andy Ratcliffe, a member of the 70’s band Candlewick Green. After a chance meeting with Country singer and producer Steve Chase, Steve gave the duo a Country gig. Although this duo was also short lived they were very well received and John was bitten by the bug once again, relaunching his career as a solo Country singer in July 2016 after encouragement from his friends and family.
John has a rich bass baritone voice, ideally suited to Country music and as word got around bookings were soon flooding in. He won the CNN Newcomer of the Year award in 2017 and the following year won the CNN Solo Act of the Year.
Following covid he now has a very full diary until the end of 2022. John has no aspirations of working with a band and is happy to concentrate on his career as a soloist but he would consider occasionally working with other musicians if required.
Research by Nick Catford.
Although John Doherty has only been on the Country scene for five years, he has very quickly established himself as one of the best newcomers we have seen for a long time.
He first started singing at home when he was 16/17 and bought himself a guitar and started learning a few chords. When his father heard him singing he was very impressed and encouraged him to continue. His father bought a banjo and formed an Irish band with some friends. They played in local social clubs and invited John to sing during the breaks; this was his first experience of singing in public. He started singing traditional Irish ballads, many acapella, during his annual family visits to the Clormany Festival