Teacher-musician John Doan celebrates his new album
SARANAC LAKE – Lake Placid resident John Doan has released his first album, “Welcome to Cascadeville,” and the Waterhole will host an album release party Saturday.
Doan said he uses guitar, banjo and dobro on the album to create acoustic songs inspired by the Adirondacks. He will perform original songs solo, alongside his daughter Hannah, who sings on the album and with the band Big Slyde, in which they’re both members.
Doan, who is also a teacher at North Country School, said he will also perform with one of his students, Trillium Macario, who plays bass on a couple of tracks on the album.
“It’s just going to be a good time, an evening of mostly original music,” Doan said. “I can’t say that once Big Slyde gets going there’s not going to be a couple favorite cover songs, but for the most part, it’s all going to be songs that I’ve written. The first set will be a little more low-key and acoustic, and then the second set will get really wound up.”
Doan was inspired by the area and began to write the album, which also includes electric banjo and electric guitar, but for the most part is acoustic.
“Cascadeville” is sort of a little unknown area, Doan said.
“Cascadeville was actually a post office in a hotel between the Cascade lakes, which is right near where I live,” he said. “We always refer to ourselves as living in Cascadeville, and so the CD is called (that) because these are all songs that I’ve written since I’ve been here.
“I think just living in this beautiful place, getting to know the wonderful people around here has been an inspiration,” he said. “I tend to write numerous songs about the weather and about weather-related items, whether its skiing or cold or flooding, so that always inspires.”
Doan takes a music-centric approach to writing songs, creating tunes and experimenting with instruments before thinking about the lyrics.
“I tend to be a write the music first person,” he said. “I stumble across little melodies that I think sound cool and then slowly develop them. A lot of times, I’ll write a song on one instrument and then I’ll figure it out on another instrument, and maybe send it over to another one. That’s sort of how the music evolves, and the words just show up eventually, I guess, is the only way I can describe it. They don’t all sort of come quickly, but they do arrive.”
Doan said he writes consistently, and while he plays a lot of his songs with Big Slyde, many others go unheard, which is why he decided to create the album.
“This album just came about by me sitting at home playing for my dogs and one day looking at the dogs and saying, ‘more people should hear my songs than just you,'” he said. “Big Slyde does a number of my songs, but I’m a pretty prolific writer, so they certainly don’t play all of them. I wanted the album to really get some of my other songs out there.”
He said the best part of making the album was working with his two children to create it, he said. Hannah sings, and his son Jacob plays electric guitar and bass on numerous tracks.
“One of the things I really enjoyed about making this CD was getting the chance to play with both my kids,” he said. “To have them contribute really felt good.”
Albums will be sold at the show, which is for ages 21 and over.
Doors open at 9 p.m. with the show beginning at 10 p.m.