Album Notes

Michael Troy was born and raised in the rough-and-tumble mill town of Fall River, Mass. In many ways, his life reflects the lives of the hard-working common folk who populate this part of New England. Having spent parts of his own life as a mill worker, fisherman, laborer and carpenter, and most of his adult years as a husband and father, Michael has traveled many paths, and the experience and wisdom he's gleaned along the way echoes through his music.

A magical storyteller with a gift for melody, a deep rich voice, excellent finger-pickin' skills and the ability to compose outstanding stanzas of substance, Michael's plaintive ballads speak of the hills and mills of Fall River and of childhood dreams not quite forgotten in the adult quest to make an honest living. But Michael is honest when he says he's playing for himself, for the sheer joy of creating music to call his own. "I have no plan," he says. "I'm not trying to write in any style or sound like someone else. I write from gut feeling. I let the emotion drive the music, not the music drive the emotions."

In 1998, as Michael puts it, he moved "from the road of least resistance, to the road one chooses". The CD he released that year,Whispers in the Wind, was taken directly from demo tapes he had been working on, tracks he had never intended to actually put into CD form. Each song on "Whispers" is like a vivid, painted picture - the artist's conception of a life experience, illustrated solely by the tools of voice and guitar. There's no fancy production here, no drums, keyboards, sidemen, not even liner notes - just the simple, eloquent, touching words and melodies of a humble, quiet man from a town that has seen its share of historic ups and downs.

Michael has performed at clubs, coffeehouses and festivals throughout the Bay State and beyond, including the Narrows Center for the Arts (Fall River, MA), Fall River Celebrates America (Fall River, MA), New Bedford Summerfest (New Bedford, MA), Minstrel Coffeehouse (Morristown,NJ), Club Passim (Cambridge, MA), The Center for the Arts Natick (Natick, MA), Anderson Fair (Houston, TX), The Mucky Duck (Houston, TX) and the Linden Tree Coffeehouse (Wakefield, MA) to name a few.

Michael is also the 2002 winner of the annual Rose-Garden Performing Songwriter Competition. He was awarded Emerging Artist Showcases at the2003 Falcon Ridge Folk Festival, the 2003 Southwest Regional Folk Alliance (SWERFA), the 2003 Northeast Regional Folk Alliance (NERFA), 2004 Winterfolk II Festival. He is the 2nd place winner in both the Chris Austin (Merlefest) and the Woody Guthrie Songwriter's Contests. He was a finalist in the 2004 Kerrville New Song Contest and will compete in the Founders Title Folk Festival Songwriter's Contest in Salt Lake City, Utah in July 2004.