Bio

John Ludgate has been playing in clubs and pubs, coffee houses and music festivals for the past 25 years. He has won numerous awards and FACTOR grants for his song-writing and has received radio airplay across Canada and the USA.

Over the last twelve years he has been joined by his wife Sheila on bass and harmony vocals. Together they have been performing as a duo across Southern Ontario and into Montreal and the U.S. - playing regularly at many locations for an extended period of time. Audiences enjoy the strong rhythms, harmony vocals and original song writing that the duo creates.

John & Sheila have recorded five studio CD's of original material.

The first studio CD entitled “Passengers”, received a nomination at the Hamilton Music Scene awards.

The second studio CD entitled "Suburban Tales" was released in 2009. It too has received favourable reviews as well as radio airplay. (One of the videos produced for this CD - "Steinbeck's Guitar" - has been picked up for promotional use by the Steinbeck Centre in Salinas, California.)

Their third CD entitled "Running Through The Innocent Years" was released in 2011 and has generated positive reviews and significant airplay on Folk/Roots Radio in both Canada and the U.S. (Check the FolkDJ Archives for details.) To view a video for this CD entitled "Never Too Late" (which was shot in and around the Hamilton area) please visit the Video section of this website.

The fourth studio CD - "Northern Soul" (2013) has generated numerous positive reviews and in fact three of the songs on the CD have been recognized by NSAI (Nashville Songwriters Association International) in their One's To Watch and Pitch To Publisher programs. As well, the title track "Northern Soul" has won the Multicultural Category Award in Folk Music Ontario's Songs From The Heart competition.

Their fifth studio CD - "What The Camera Couldn't See" (2018) has received numerous positive reviews and was chosen by Jim Marino as one of his 2018 Top 10 CD picks for Penguin Eggs Magazine (Winter 2018 Edition).

Running Through The Innocent Years, Northern Soul and What The Camera Couldn't See might be described as family fusion projects bringing together the roots sounds of John & Sheila Ludgate with the more electric sounds of their sons – Luke, Anthony and Shane Ludgate, who belong to the popular alternative band Beautiful Nothing. This pairing creates a unique sound and sensibility.

(John and Sheila have also released two live CD's entitled “Two, Three, Four…” (2014) and "Two, Three, Four... Volume Two" (2019). The title comes from the fact that when they’re playing live almost every song they play starts off with the “two, three, four” count-in. The CD's themselves are pretty stripped down projects – live off-the-floor performances of both old and new songs that they’ve written …just a couple of voices, an acoustic guitar, a bass and a harmonica that capture the essence and character of John & Sheila's live performances.)