Onion Honey

Onion Honey is a four-piece folk band, with the capability to play as a duo or quartet. We play a mix of traditional and original folk & bluegrass songs, ranging from the full hoedown experience to more mellow background music, and can customize our setlist to suit an event as needed. We play banjo, guitar, mandolin, and double bass and all members sing.

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 lead and harmony, write songs, and pass around banjo, guitar, mandolin, and double bass in performance - and three years of weekly ‘Banjo Church’ livecasts through lockdown has polished their onstage rapport and banter 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, with a sense of humour that sets them apart from their contemporaries.”

Onion Honey has been heard on radio stations across Canada, showcased at Folk Music Ontario in 2023, and have performed at a number of festivals including Banjofest in Guelph, Springtide Festival in Uxbridge, Cambridge’s Mill Race Folk Festival, Winterfolk in Toronto, River Valley Bluegrass Festival, and more.

Onion Honey is a four-piece band, with the capability to trim down to a duo. We can play acoustically in a smaller intimate venue, or we can play amplified as necessary.

We typically play huddled around one condenser microphone, so our tech needs are low, and we can bring our own sound equipment if needed. We can plug in and use individual mics if the venue needs it; just ask us for a stage map.