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Michael Powers is without a doubt a true master of the guitar. It was his destiny from childhood. Michael's father James was a Merchant Marine who eventually settled in Bayonne, New Jersey (USA) and opened a local Restaurant, but they spent Summers in the North Carolina tobacco fields. Michael, no doubt then, became familiar with the rural South, its segregation but also its Gospel - the Preacher's Rap, the choir going into a trance, porch Blues - where men gathered nightly on their porches with their guitars and tiny amplifiers.
Michael's played "air guitar" with his mother Doris' broom. When he turned 7, Doris bought him a guitar by cashing in a book of Savings Stamps, because she was tired of cleaning up straw off the floor. Michael used the guitar for all of his Army men. But one day a friend visited with a guitar and played a song. Doris thought the friend left but she heard the song still being played on the guitar - only to find that little Michael had mimicked exactly what he heard! Doris engaged her son's talent and got him lessons in tuning. Doris used to entertain friends and to keep Michael off the Street, she assigned Michael's to play the records, turn them over, routinely. These records included Muddy Waters, Lightnin Hopkins, Jimmy Reed, Billie Holiday, John Lee Hooker. When Michael was 12 years old he lived across the Street from Maxx's Kansas City where entertainers performed. He got to see Jimmy Reed live singing and playing harmonica and guitar while tapping his foot as the drum, accompanied by his wife on vocals and tambourine. This was amazing and influential to young Michael. The next influence came when he first saw the Beatles on television and then JIMI HENDRIX. Michael started the "RB ZigZags" Band in High School. Later he joined the Adlibs as lead singer and guitarist, recorded the cult hit "Boy from New York City" and toured the country opening for top ten bands such as The Everly Brothers, Motown artists, etc. Two weeks before graduation he was hired to play for James Cotton and he later finished school. Michael formed "Moonbeam", a band which stayed together for 13 years and performed all over the country opening for artists such as James Brown, Bo Diddley, the Ronnettes, etc. Michael went solo after Moonbeam broke up. He spent time playing acoustic guitar in his shows, not just electric and began writing powerful original blues music, which morphs the old "porch Bluesmen" sound with his own style. Influenced by the greatest such as Chuck Berry, Johnny Winters, Robert Cray, Jimi Hendrix and John Lee Hooker, Michael's music spans from "Muddy Waters to Jimi Hendrix" in one show! If you have the absolute pleasure of seeing him live, there is no regret of a single lick he plays or any note he sings. He is no "rocker" masquerading as a "bluesman", no "Hendrix wanna be" - he is simply true to his (and Doris') heart and the rockin' soul in his music and his refined talent, is just jaw dropping and breathtaking. His audiences are worked up into a frenzy or a trance. Michael plays his guitar with the rings on his fingers, plays bass, lead and rhythm simultaneously on his guitar - while singing - and Hendrix fans, when he does Hendrix, it's "to the tee", sounds, screeches, vocals and all! It's been said, no one does Hendrix like Michael Powers! His originals are just that - original and fresh. If you didn't like the Blues before, you will now! Even Michael's arrangements of other composer's songs are created into something unimaginably entertaining and new, some winning awards. He perfects anything he touches and never compromises that last detail. Don't take my word for it, listen to the music! www.myspace.com/powersblues Go see Michael - he'd love to play for you! He's not turning the records anymore, he IS the record! |
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