I perform regularly with The Mystery Trees, The Cinders Blues Band, and Kenny Blackwell. Scroll down to learn more.
The Mystery Trees
The Mystery Trees describe themselves as a roots rock and roll band. They call their music “hillbilly blues power“. What do these phrases mean? It’s the music of America. It’s where black and white traditions collide and that is the definition of rock and roll. The Mystery Trees play a range of sounds that encompass the blues, country, rockabilly and Appalachian music in one big ball because all those styles are parts of the same spectrum of America’s most earthy musical culture. They become a unified genre with The Mystery Trees. These musicians grew up playing all this music without discriminating one from the other. The Trees are fun. They are gritty. They strive for fine musicianship while never losing sight of the reason for having a band: to rock and roll.
View Mystery Trees videos or Kenny’s Mystery Trees page.
The Cinders
Photo by Sherry Rayn Barnett
This is an electric blues band featuring the great vocalist Brett Hoover. Dorian and Brett co-lead the band. The music has Chicago 1960 as its starting place but doesnt make any attempt to sound like it. The music gets played in an organic contemporary fashion that acknowledges the fact that middle aged guys in the 21st century are influenced by a lot of phases of 20th century blues and rock ‘n’ roll. And it all gets blended together and played with a great amount of spontaneity. Its a real blues band, no lack of intensity here.
Kenny Blackwell & Dorian Michael
Photo by Lisa Weiler
Mandolinist/guitarist Kenny Blackwell studied with Jethro Burns before moving to California where he joined fiddler Richard Green’s band in ’93. His mandolin and guitar work have been heard in TV and movie scores. Since ’94, he has been a constant member of the famed Laurel Canyon Ramblers.
Guitarist Dorian Michael has played in about every style and in every type of work situation a blue collar musician could hope for. After years of honky-tonk electric guitar followed by concentrating on solo fingerstyle guitar this project is a real horizon broadener.
After Kenny and Dorian met by chance in a music store in San Luis Obispo, then at a backyard jam session, and again at a music convention in Los Angeles, they decided it was time to play some music together. Kenny, one of California’s foremost mandolinists, wanted a chance to play outside of the bluegrass genre in which he is constantly in demand. Guitarist Dorian Michael was looking for a skillfull musician who understood a wide variety of roots music. Six months later their first CD was released and they were touring as a duo.
The duo’s diverse backgrounds are the wellspring for a performance of exciting and heartfelt music. Their enthusiasm for making music and their respect for their audience is plainly evident whenever they perform. Says Dorian, “Some music makes you feel deeply, some music makes you think and some tunes are played just for the sheer fun of it. We like to try to get to all those places in the space of a concert.”
