Singer, songwriter, guitarist, mandolinist, producer, and educator Andy May continues a good run. By his twentieth birthday in 1969, Andy had played Carnegie Hall and won the Grand Championship on guitar at the fabled Union Grove, North Carolina, Old Time Fiddler's Convention. His music has been heard around the world on recordings and TV shows. In 2008, Swift River Music, the record label Andy started and runs, received the IBMA Recorded Event of the Year award for Everett Lilly & Everybody and Their Brother, to which Andy also contributed mandolin playing and production skills.
Through the years, Andy has appeared with artists as diverse as Merle Haggard, Pete Seeger, Mike Seeger, Nickel Creek, Brownie McGee and Sonny Terry, Tom Paxton, Jerry Jeff Walker, and many others. He has been a regular performer and workshop leader at MerleFest since 2001 and at "Winfield" (the Walnut Valley Festival) since 1989.
As a teenager in New York City in the late 1960's, Andy performed often at Izzy Young's Folklore Center concerts (where Bob Dylan cut his teeth a few years earlier) and on WBAI-FM. He also studied painting and fine arts at the High School of Music & Art the School of Visual Arts.
Andy left the city in 1970, moving to Massachusetts where he played the club, honkytonk, concert, and festival circuit full-time throughout the Northeast. In 1987, Andy moved to Colorado, continuing to perform and write, as well as produce records and teach. Production work and songwriting opportunities led him to Nashville in 1996. Still in Tennessee, he continues to write for a variety of projects, produce all kinds of recordings, play diverse venues, and work as an educator, most recently presenting workshops at the Country Music Hall of Fame.
Andy has been called a “troubadour of life,” an “Americana pioneer,” a “master of traditional American musical styles,” and an “upbeat roots rocker.” His music can be exuberant, thoughtful, funny, or bittersweet, but it’s always a joyful experience. Andy’s originality and optimism and his love and respect for our musical roots always shine through.
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