J Micheal Laferty

Micheal started writing and performing his own music as a teenager in the Willamette Valley of Oregon, and in 1975 began working full time as a road musician in the cocktail lounges and hotel chains up and down the West Coast. As the front man, bass guitarist, and songwriter, his tunes were in the repertoire of every band with which he worked. By 1976 Micheal's skill as a songwriter and vocalist had caught people?s attention, and several large-draw Pacific Northwest bands were covering his tunes.

Micheal started working as an acoustic solo act in the early 80?s, and for the next decade would be the Jimmy Buffet clone on the West Coast, all the while interspersing his own material when possible. In the liner notes of his first CD Gulf Stream Breezes, Micheal reflects "?my songs were written originally just for my own edification...I had no idea that there was any potential commercial value to them?they were just there and needed to come out! So I would write them, and occasionally when I got a wild hair on stage, I would play them between the cover songs. I?ll be damned if people didn?t like them, and start to request them. Sometimes they even sang along, I was a happy camper!" Micheal's reputation on the West Coast was centered around Parrotheads and Margaritaville expatriates, so it was a natural progression (and nobody was surprised) when Micheal left Oregon in 1992 on a sailboat!

Floating into Texas in 1995 Micheal settled into life on the Gulf Coast. He now calls South Padre Island Texas "home", and spends his time happily wandering between the Rio Grande, New Orleans, and the Florida Keys. His music, a reflection of his lifestyle and surroundings, is garnering recognition, in the Americana/Texas Music genre here in the States as well as Europe, and he has become a defining benchmark in the emerging "Gulf Coast Americana" market.

It is an ironic twist that this Oregon native who worked the clubs of the Pacific Northwest so extensively for over 20 years should finally begin to gain national attention with the mistaken identity as a "Texas Songwriter". But after an evening spent with Micheal it is easy to see why a rapidly growing base of loyal fans, and media, are comparing Micheal with such notables as Robert Earl Keen, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Joe Ely, Lyle Lovett, Jerry Jeff Walker, and Jimmy Buffett. A repertoire of material that weaves seamlessly in and out of all facets of human emotion, a blazingly wicked wit that immediately engages the audience, and an unabashed love for what he does; all combine to make a J. Micheal Laferty show an event to remember.