Alabama Mike - Stuff I've Been Through CD

To refer to Alabama Mike as an unconventional musical artist is to drastically understate the case. He’s always been a bit off kilter from the mainstream and, frankly, he can live with that just fine. “My reality might be different, but that doesn’t make it wrong,” he says. “It just reflects me. As an artist, you have to know what you are, and more importantly, what you are not.” That goes a long way toward explaining the fearless nature of his music. He co-produced the Little Village album, Stuff I’ve Been Through, along with Greaseland guru Christoffer “Kid” Andersen, assuring a personal stamp on every note. A native of Talladega, Ala., Mike grew up admiring his father’s gospel vocals, which underlie everything the artist does today. His music includes raw-edged, old-school Southern soul, straight-ahead blues, earthy street-funk and R&B gleaned from his blue-collar neighborhood of Richmond, Calif., where he has lived for the past 25 years. Alabama Mike is one of the few blues artists today who write strong, memorable songs that are simultaneously unique, yet steeped in blues tradition. He explores modern themes that reflect his personality: unabashedly self-assured and swaggering at times, yet natural and uncontrived. He fell in love at with blues at an early age mainly because of Lightnin’ Hopkins. He never got to see him, but the stories Hopkins conjured up left a lasting impression. Mike knew that if he was going to be a musical artist, it was because he wanted to express himself creatively through stories. That’s reflected in songs such as “Fat Shame PT 1” and “Fat Shame PT 2” that portray his acceptance of carrying more weight than society prefers, and demands the world to accept him as he is. He refers to his music as “urban anthems” taken directly from the streets where he proudly resides. Music should not be comfortable, he says, and challenges others not to create things just to please others. “My music finds it own path. I just go along with it,” he says. “And, it winds up being what I am.” -Michael Kinsman