Album Notes

Joe Michael was born in Southern Indiana. Soon after, he moved to rural Hancock County, Kentucky to live with his beloved Grandmother where his passion for music was fostered. It was there in the warmth of his “Mamaw’s” coal-heated home where he first heard the magical sounds of The Grande Ole Opry Live, WSM Radio and Hee Haw. Joe’s family didn’t have the resources to afford proper lessons. However, his grandmother’s house and the surrounding aunt’s and uncle’s musical homes provided plenty of inspiration with guitars and folk instruments to plunk around on. The first song he remembers singing was Ray Stephen’s “The Streak”. In his teen years, Joe would move to south Texas for several years before eventually coming full circle ending up in Southern Indiana again. However, it was in Texas where his passion for performing before a live audience was ignited as he performed as a drummer with a traveling Gospel/Country group and his first rock band.

In 1993, Joe began writing, singing and recording his own songs in local studios to great reviews throughout the Midwest. After finding out early in the year he would soon be a father, he decided to go back to college and get a teaching degree. In between semesters, Joe raised his son, ran a landscape contracting business, played coffee houses, colleges, bars, festivals and churches and even made two trips to Europe. Joe sang his songs anywhere he could. Six years later in 1999, with a teaching degree in hand, the prodding of close friends and the support of his wife, Joe made the decision to continue his journey of being a songwriter/performer and headed to Nashville. Being only two hours away from the songwriting Mecca he decided to commute back and forth from Southern Indiana to Nashville (sometimes daily) to record and hone his writing skills with various friends in the industry while continuing to travel and perform around the country.

In 2008, after many miles, songs and a whole lot of perseverance, Joe is more than “just hanging in there”. He is emerging as an artist and writer to have all of the elements to carve his own niche in this new generation of Country Music stars. After a busy year performing at multiple Nascar races to hundreds of thousands of fans around the country, Joe recorded his most ambitious and original project to date in Nashville, Tennessee. Six of the eleven songs on the “Don’t You Want Some of That” record were written or co-written by Joe. “Don’t You Want Some of That” is a powerful and edgy Country record delivered with Joe’s original voice, style and the help of some of today’s hottest Nashville session players.
Slated for a tentative release by year’s end, on his manager’s own indie label, Fast Car Records, Joe was recently interviewed and featured on the legendary, WSM Grande Ole Opry Radio with the already Nascar favorite, “Gentlemen, Start Your Engines”. That same weekend Joe teamed up with a Nascar team that promoted the release of his new record by featuring the #81 Joe Michael/St.Judes race car, covered with a picture of Joe’s new record cover and name for the Nascar Nationwide race in Memphis, Tennessee. Seen and heard by millions on ESPN, Joe’s song, “Gentlemen, Start Your Engines” was also played for Nascar fans before the drivers were introduced.
Joe and his new record, “Don’t You Want Some of That” will be featured in Country Weekly on November 11, 2008.