Welcome to the official website of Northern Ontario Folk Musician
Don Charbonneau
Coming to you from Wawa Ontario Canada
New Click on the Train Blog to leave your train story or email us using our mailform.
Guide and sightseeing service Click here
House Concert with Don click here
From fishing guide to songwriter - Don Charbonneau decided one day to write a song about his old 1965 StarCraft fishing boat and embarked on a new career.
This wilderness fishing guide has written and released five albums in the last five years and working on a new CD for 2009.
Two of his albums are a tribute to Canadian artist Tom Thomson and The Group of Seven.
His love for the Northern Ontario landscape shines through in familiar themes such as fishing, trapping and working on the land.
You can listen to all of his songs and view his artwork on this website. Enjoy!
Don's new art blog http://doncharbonneau.blogspot.com/
Celebrating Canadian Art Through Music
Don's new 'CD Riding The Rails in Paradise' dedicated to the Group of Seven is now available to purchase on
our CD page.
Group of Seven in Algoma
Here is what Sault Ste.Marie musician, writer, artist and music producer Rusty McCarthy has to say about this new album:
..." Don has a mesmerizing ability to plant you in the middle of a lake, a mountain top, or whizzing through boreal forest on an old rail car.Yes, you can almost feel the blackflies and mosquitos, except that's not Buster Keaton out for a ride, it's our folk singing fishing guide Don Charbonneau with a multitude of stories about this Northern Land and the group of artists that made the region famous. These painters and their paintings have become cherished worldwide."
It was great artistic fun to work and play on this honest and retropespective Group of Seven project.
Rusty McCarthy ~ Recroom Studio . (July 29 ~ 2008)
Riding the Rails in Paradise ~ Song Inspiration
Review Lake Superior Magazine Editor Konnie LeMay
Gitche Gumee - Songs from the Lake, by Don Charbonneau
If you’re looking for a little road-trip music on your Circle Tour of Lake Superior, check out the latest CD by Don Charbonneau.
You can be assured that Don, who also works as a fishing guide out of Wawa, Ontario, knows Lake Superior. He also knows music, as do his backup musicians and those who produce his CDs locally.
This collection has both the most-requested songs about the region from his past albums plus six new tracks.
The quality of the production makes listening to these folk tunes a pleasure, and Don’s natural balladeer voice brings you into the tales told.
You can check out a sample at www.doncharbonneau.com
Northern Highway CD
..."took a ride down Don Charbonneau's Northern Highway Cd and liked it "... Mark Rheaume CBC Radio.
Don and Tom Thomson
When I first saw a Tom Thomson sketch (the one with the moose running through a creek at night with a gorgeous Northern Lights backdrop) I knew immediately that this man spent a lot of time in the bush!
A good friend of mine Herschel Payne introduced me to the work of Tom Thomson a few years back in Pukaskwa National Park. Herschel, a good canoe man himself told me that Thomson would camp weeks at a time in the bush to paint and fish. I soon discovered that Tom was a fisherman and guide in Algonquin Park. Northland / My Algonquin Home was the first song I wrote about Tom Thomson and that first sketch inspired the next song Wildwood on which both my son Noel and daughter Dawn perform the background vocals. Dawn does a great job with the lyrics on The Last Stand.
Don Charbonneau
Dedicated to the memory of Canadian guide, fisherman and wilderness landscape artist Tom Thomson.
..."Wildwood/Through Tom’s Eyes presents a compelling narrative of the life of one of Canada’s most prominent wilderness landscape artists namely, Tom Thomson a friend and major influence of The Group of Seven. This collection of songs features Herschel Payne on violin. Payne brings a wealth of experience to this project. His credits include a full symphony and solo career with as many as two hundred performances a year as a concert violinist with the Quebec Symphony Orchestra and as a solo violinist with C.B.C. Radio Canada"... by Phil Mantello Algoma Singer Songwriter. (read full review ~ click here Tom Thomson
Click on Don's Blog for stories and new songs lyrics. Just posted a picture of Maxie Simon and the Wawa Ironmen senior "A" hockey team from the 1960's.
