John Leeder has been around homemade music, much of it folk music, all his life. Growing up in the village of Inglewood, Ontario, he learned traditional songs from his mother, and from Edith Fowke’s and Alan Mills’s folk music programs on CBC radio. As a child, he was taught Hawaiian guitar by his father, who played many stringed instruments, and in his teens he began picking up guitar and 5-string banjo, as well as a smattering of fiddle and mandolin. The banjo became his main instrument at that time, but later on the octave mandolin was added, and became one of his mainstays. Canadian traditional music is his first love, with British “trad” and American old-time music coming a close second. His own songwriting reflects these interests — “big choruses” and strong storytelling are hallmarks of his songs
