Album Notes

Cross James Taylor with Don Henley, throw in some jazz around the edges, add a golden voice and you've got the musical offerings of Michael Graetzer. Solo acoustic or with a trio, this international recording artist moves audiences with his warm presence, lush vocals and masterful acoustic guitar work. Award-winning originals such as "Soon" (2002 Nashville Songwriting Association International award winner) are interspersed with unusual interpretations of everything from Talking Heads to Doobie Brothers to Eric Clapton. Original crowd-pleasers include the theatrical rantings of "Wakaranai" (about not understanding Japanese), the playful jibes of "Cigarette Baby" and the powerful, Celtic-driven rock of "Soul Direction," the title track on his latest album. In November 2001 he released his full-length CD "Soul Direction," featuring some of the top jazz and pop players from Berklee College of Music in Boston. As a songwriting student there, he was awarded over $10,000 in merit scholarships. He also served as a judge for the 2000 USA Songwriting Contest. In 2004, he performed with Broadway legend Peter Howard on the QE2 and QM2 cruise ships and at Manhattan's prestigious Lamb's Club and Chez Josephine. In 2003, he performed twice on the nationally syndicated Joey Reynold's Show (WOR) and his song "Chelsea and Me" was featured on local Fox news. He performs in New York at Triad, Downtime, Red, Don't Tell Mama, Le Bar Bat, Groove, DTUT, C-Note and for HAI. While working for Roland musical instruments in Japan in 1992, he was featured in the Kyoto Shimbun (newspaper) and on the popular national television show "B-Apple Ni-ji" performing his original song, "Wakaranai (I don't understand)." In addition to weekly nightclub shows, and a 3-week tour with "The Wizard of Jazz," he was a featured performer at the 1200-year anniversary of the founding of Kyoto. After involvement in the San Francisco theatre scene as an actor, he worked as a full-time sound designer creating sound effects and tailormade soundscapes, an experience that later influenced his rich studio production work. Michael is currently living in New York City recording tracks for his second album. Working with some of the country's top songwriters, he is incorporating influences from the cutting edge of the eclectic Nashville and New York songwriter scenes. "'Soon' is a sweet gem of a song." -Maya Dreamwalker, To Your Health (New York City) "His vocal quality, similar to Gordon Lightfoot or Jim Croce, nestles nicely with his smooth-jazz/pop songcraft." -Drew Walen, The City Paper (Nashville)