While they weren’t on the schedule at the start of the season, Tour de Fort attendees will be treated to a fiery performance next week when The McDades take to the stage in place of originally scheduled The Hello Darlins.
The McDades are a Juno award-winning celtic-rooted band with Alberta roots who will offer a stark contrast from last week’s Big Sugar performance when they play the Townshend Theatre on Wednesday, February 11, 2026.
The nucleus of The McDades is made up of brothers Solon and Jeremiah McDade with their sister Shannon Johnson.
“So the McDades is myself and my two brothers and then two other really awesome musicians,” Johnson said.
Johnson plays violin and sings while brother Solon plays bass and sings backup and Jeremiah plays a variety of whistles, flutes and the saxophone. They’re also joined by a drummer and a guitar player.
“We grew up playing music together with our parents and then broke out on our own, I guess we fired our parents.”
Their music is inspired by those early days with their parents, playing folk music as a family as the McDade Family Band.
“We play a mix of sort of folk styles, Canadian folk, I guess you could call it celtic-rooted more than anything,” Johnson said.
“We write all our own instrumentals and then we do different arrangements of some traditional songs.”
In addition to the traditional Celtic and Canadian tunes they add in some jazz elements influenced by her brothers’ education.
“My brothers Solon and Jeremiah went to McGill University and studied jazz, so there’s some improvisation and some rhythms that would be from around the world that we try and incorporate,” Johnson said.
Despite their upbringing Johnson says she’s not sure whether their parents might have preferred them to pursue a different career.
“At some point you just feel like you were bred to do it,” she said.
“I’m not sure that our parents thought it was the most financially stable choice. They might have been happier if we were doctors but we’re happy that we’re doing it at this point in time. We really just enjoy playing together and creating music together and it has become such a big part of our lives I don’t think we can see ourselves doing much else.”
The band is in the process of releasing a new album with one single out already and another due out on Thursday with a full album due out in the spring, but those taking in this northern Ontario tour will be treated to some songs from the new recording.
“We just released a single last month and there’s a new one coming up next week and the whole album will be out Apr. 30,” Johnson said.
“We’ll probably be doing a few more of the songs from that album on this upcoming tour in Ontario. So you guys will be the first to get a preview of the live performances of that music, so that’s fun.”
In addition to the new tunes, the show will include other material from their repertoire.
“We’ll be doing some stuff from the new album and then a mix of some of our old favourites,” Johnson said.
“A mix of instrumentals and vocals, probably a tune in French or two. Mostly just upbeat, good time kind of stuff and then maybe some moody stuff as well, a good mix I would say.”
If you didn’t get a passport to this year’s Tour De Fort season and have been missing out on the shows, Tour De Fort has released a limited number of tickets available online at tourdefort.com. The show starts at 7:30 p.m. at the Townshend Theatre in Fort Frances.
