Album Notes

Michael O’Neill’s latest CD, “Who’s Bad Now” is a collection of songs a long time in the making. Not due to a tedious, protracted recording process, oh no. The music presented here -- as with any great gumbo -- couldn’t have been made without a carefully cultivated seasoning, a spicy, rich tapestry of a life that’s been lived to the fullest; music that’s been made not just by living the length of one’s life, but by living the width and the breadth of it as well.
Michael’s songs are born from these experiences, exploring the parameters of his muse, testing the limits, like driving cross country with the top down, pedal to the metal, or walking along a river barefooted, mud squishing between your toes; not a care in the world yet a clarity suffused by someone who’s seen a thing or three and has lived to tell about it, and is far from done!
On “Who’s Bad Now” you’ll hear rock influences culled from Michael’s days spent in Los Angeles where he ripped it up with the best of them, seamlessly mix with clear, unvarnished country born from Michael’s love of the land and his Earthly pursuit of a simpler time and place; pure American music, born and bred. From the soulful strut of the title track, “Who’s Bad Now”, to the kick up your heels and throw caution to the wind of “Chance”, to the playfulness of the Lowell George classic, “Dixie Chicken”, to the plaintively honest and introspective “Better”, there is something here for anyone who loves music, music that emerges raw from the heart and the soul.
Prepare to get muddy. Prepare to feel the sting of the wind. Dive in, let the current spirit you away. Michael O’Neill’s new CD, “Who’s Bad Now”, is a testament to a life lived, a collection of music seeped in the great traditions, done to a turn. “Who’s Bad Now”, a recording whose time has come.