Onion Honey presented by Cuckoo's Nest Folk Club at Chaucer's Pub on Sunday, January 18, 2025, in London Ontario.
Onion Honey may hail from Ontario’s tech capital, but musicians Dave Pike, Esther Wheaton, Leanne Swantko, and Kayleigh LeBlanc play folk music like an old-fashioned string band. The multi-talented lineup all sing harmony, write songs, and pass around banjo, guitar, mandolin, and double bass in performance - and three years of weekly ‘Banjo Church’ livecasts polished their onstage rapport to a high shine.
The band released Foul Weather Friends in May 2023, their first professional studio album after over a decade of self-produced music. Recorded live off the floor and engineered by Andy Magoffin at his House of Miracles, Roots Music Canada praised the album’s “out-of-this-world harmonies and sweet, tart, string-band sound” and the band’s “catchy-as-hell little ditties that could easily pass for traditional”. The record earned them a nomination at the 2025 CFMAs for Contemporary Vocalist of the Year.
Onion Honey has been heard on radio stations across Canada, showcased at Folk Music Ontario in 2023, and performed at a number of festivals including Mariposa Folk Festival in Orillia, Springtide Festival in Uxbridge, Winterfolk in Toronto, River Valley Bluegrass Festival, and more.
