Matt McDonald

Matt started playing guitar in college and there he found a welcoming and stable musical environment playing gospel music and soaking up the folk and rock music of the time. Throughout the years, he developed the rich bass/baritone vocals that is the signature sound of No Irish Need Apply.

 

Matt formed No Irish Need Apply with his long-time friend, Danny McEwen, starting out with gospel and folk songs and gradually incorporating Irish standards into their set lists.

Matt incorporated his musical influences with the life experience of his Philadelphia Irish upbringing and summers spent with relatives in the mountains of Schuylkill County Pennsylvania; an area rich with coal miners and railroad workers. His unpretentious, blue-collar upbringing is showcased in the original and cover tunes of No Irish Need Apply’s Celtic rock.