Biography

Barbara McDonald

Barbara McDonald is an accomplished singer/songwriter from the suburbs of Philadelphia, PA. She plays acoustic guitar and has performed since her college days. She caught the bug back in high school, however, when she won the talent portion at the Junior Miss Pageant with an original composition she sang.
Barbara is a published poet and has received favorable reviews for her poetry and lyric-writing. She also has radio broadcasting experience from her college days and wrote and produced special radio shows related to the creative arts. "Knight of Dreams" (arranged on this album by John) was originally written during her freshman year.

Married and blessed with two sons, she has been active online as a specialist/consultant in "online public relations." Barbara, who is known as Jasmine* to her cyberfriends, decided that at this point in her life it was time to "go for it!" and follow her long-held dream of recording an album of original songs.With the help, creative vision and inspiration of her multi-talented partner John Perkins, this dream has now become a reality.

"Madmen & Lovers", released by White Eagle Records, marks her debut solo album. She can also be found on the charity compilation CD, "Hands Across America" released in November '98 by the Philadelphia Songwriters Association (PSA), of which she is a member. Barbara is also a member of the Just Plain Folks association for information, networking, and support in the music industry.

Co-writer/producer, John Perkins has been in the music business for many years and has worked in close association with many artistes on his three record labels. Most notable bands he's been in include The Romantics, Pure Silk, along with Indi Hawkes & The White Eagle Band.

John is originally from Hereford but like many he moved away to the big cities out of necessity "My first professional music years" says John, "were spent in Dawnwind with co-writer Jon Harflett, and we were under the same management as groups like Blonde On Blonde and UFO and eventually released an album called "Looking Back On The Future" on the Amron label - now listed in Record Collecters Guide at $105 (Shame I'm not getting the money<G>)."

Around that time (1976) he met and teamed up with his now long time friend and singing partner Vicky Gilbert and initially went through some name changes and varying line ups before recording as Pure Silk and the resulting single was mastered at Abbey Road Studios in 1984, which got airplay on many stations in the UK.
In 1990 he teamed up with Vicky's son Simon and his own sons to form The Romantics (European version - unaware of the American band with same name) and the album Mon Amie spawned a single "Absence Makes The Heart Grow Fonder" which got airplay all over Europe, most notably on BBC Radio One, and other BBC Network stations in Scotland and Ireland, and Atlantic 252 along with lots of local stations".

Then followed a spell where that band became inactive and John worked mostly in the studio 'til he met up with Indi Hawkes. The White Eagle Band was born, alongside the album "Beyond the Plains" which he co-wrote with Indi and produced."We began gigging" John continues, "with me taking Indi to the Fete de la Musique in Paris - France to make her debut and the result was a number of radio and festival appearances".
Then another Romantics single & video followed called "The Wonder Behind Your Eyes" but this time with only two (Simon and John) on the road. He explains, "In a rest from that, I begun compiling tracks I had written for an album with the working title "Lonely Heart", but hit on the idea of using versions recorded by the various friends who had covered my songs to become a various artistes compilation album."

Then John & Barb met on the internet........................