StevieMac

Steve MacDonald was born in St. Stephen, New Brunswick, uprooted to Chilliwack, B.C. for a few years, then Fredericton, N.B. before being plunked back again in St. Stephen, in a house whose neighbours included the Lee boys (David, Bobby, and John) along with Ray Clarke and Ross Smythe. By the time they hit grade seven, it was apparent that they all shared an unquenchable interest in music. Bobby Lee’s father paid for weekly guitar lessons, after which Bobby wound up over at the MacDonald’s, where he would teach Steve what he’d just learned. Later that night in their shared bedroom, Steve would teach his little brother Gordie what Bobby had taught him. Then the boys got the idea in their heads that they should form a band and play in coffeehouses and church halls. After all, the Ghost Squad and the Diablos were attracting a lot of attention at local dances playing cover tunes of the hits and their rehearsals on Saturday afternoons drew the boys like a magnet. With the addition of Ralph McCulley, David Boyd, and Kent Haley, a new band called E.S.P. or, — it was the Woodstock era after all —‘Electric Soda Pop.’ Several years later, the band would change its name to ‘Evolution.’ By that time, both Bobby and John Lee were playing with the band, with Rob initially playing bass and then taking over lead guitar and John taking over keyboards. When the band folded in 1970, Steve discovered that writing lyrics and music wasn’t just for fun, it was fulfilling a need that he had, the need to express musically what was happening in his life. A smaller, more eclectic band, called “Factory” emerged, playing coffees houses and getting together at a bar known as “The Lumberyard” every Thursday night. Eventually, “Factory” gave way to “The Saint Croix River Bottom Band” and what Steve likes to call “that homegrown sound” developed. Gordie MacDonald, thanks to all of those free lessons on the guitar, joined Steve on stage and, tune by tune, Steve began to write. His early musical influences include Chubby Checker, Hank Snow, Merle Haggard, Johnny Cash, The Beatles, Buffalo Springfield, and CSN&Y.; After a few years living a life that provided a lot of grist for his later songs, Steve, as he likes to say, “began living a normal life.” Although he doesn’t mention it very often, Steve spent a year training in mortuary science, interested in following in his father’s footsteps until that fateful moment when he was asked to assist in the embalming of the younger sister of a f