LEMON
Bucket
Orkestra
2010 – Present
Balkan Klezmer Party Punk Super music!!!
I am a founding member of Toronto's original Slavic-Balkan-Klezmer-Party-Punk-Super-Band. Our music has been called “frenetic, charismatic, and gloriously anarchic”, and “equal parts exhilarating precision and reckless abandon.” It’s all about creating a visceral, joyful experience that transcends time and place; not a representation of culture, actual living culture.
Since our birth as a busking band in 2010, Lemon Bucket Orkestra has released six records, garnering 2 Juno nominations and several Canadian Folk Music awards. We've toured the globe relentlessly, from WOMAD festivals in England and New Zealand to Pohoda in Slovakia, Festival D’Été in Québec City, New Orleans Jazz Fest, and most recently to Chile and Colombia for the Mundovivo Festival, to name but a few. Our guerilla folk opera, Counting Sheep, won 2 Dora Awards and 6 awards at the Edinburgh Fringe, including the coveted Scotsman's Fringe First award. 16 years in, we have no plans of slowing down.
Elsewhere on the Internet
a taste of LBO —featuring clips from 15 years of jumping off stages, parading through streets and touring the globe
Romano Oro, live at The Great Hall, Toronto, May 2025.
made by Pedja Milosavljevic, Balkanada.
video for the title track from the album Cuckoo, released in 2024.
shot on Toronto Island by Pedja Milosavljevic, Balkanada.
Lemon Bucket leading the annual Blackout Anniversary Parade in Toronto, 2013.
featuring Samba Elegua, New Model Circus Army, and as many musician friends as we could gather.
Freedom, from our 2017 album If I Had The Strength.
directed and produced by Michael Louis Johnson.
Goodbye, live at The Opera House, Toronto, 2018. From our 2017 album If I Had The Strength.
directed and produced by Michael Louis Johnson.
Discography
Lemon Bucket Orkestra
Cuckoo – 2024
Credits/Notes:
Flugelhorn
Canadian Folk Music Awards nomination
Global Roots Album of the Year
Lemon Bucket Orkestra
If I Had The Strength – 2017
Credits/Notes:
Flugelhorn
Canadian Folk Music Awards nomination
World Music Group of the Year
Lemon Bucket Orkestra
Moorka – 2015
Credits/Notes:
Flugelhorn
Canadian Folk Music Awards World, Music Group Of The Year
Juno Awards Nomination, World Music Album Of The Year
Now Magazine Reader’s Poll, Best Band In Toronto
Lemon Bucket Orkestra
Counting Sheep – 2015
Credits/Notes:
MLJ does not appear on this record.
LIVE recording from the first production of LBO’s guerilla folk opera about the Maidan Revolution in Kiev, 2014. Later productions went on to win multiple awards in Toronto & Edinburgh.
Lemon Bucket Orkestra
Lume, Lume – 2012
Credits/Notes:
Flugelhorn
Canadian Folk Music Awards nominations, New/Emerging Artist of the Year
World Music Group of the Year
Traditional Album of the Year
Instrumental Group of the Year
Juno Awards nomination, World Music Album of the Year
Indie88 Indie Award nomination
World Artist of the Year
Lemon Bucket Orkestra
Cheeky EP – 2011
Credits/Notes:
Flugelhorn