Blessed with a powerful voice and a soulful drawl that unspools as soon as the stage lights come up, Shea Michaels is a seasoned entertainer known for the passion and energy he brings to every performance.
Following his 2003 debut album, Back To My Roots, the Shea Michaels Band appeared to be gaining momentum as members headed back to the studio in 2007 to work on a sophomore offering. However, just before the album was complete, the band decided to part ways.
Michaels continued to work on the record, and in the summer of 2008, ½ Naked was released under the band’s new name, Shea Michaels & Co. The album enjoyed some quick success thanks to the breezy blend of country and tropical flavored Southern rock that has come to define Shea Michaels.
The album’s first single, “Breathe,” was an ode to Michaels’ hometown, Bay St. Louis, Miss. The feel-good song, with its salty and captivating guitar licks, paid homage to the city’s charming downtown beachfront saloons where Michaels got his start playing music. The city’s entire downtown had been obliterated three years earlier by Hurricane Katrina.
One of his favorite musical heroes, country legend Chris Ledoux, was born in Biloxi, Miss., to an Air Force father, and just 27 years and five days later, Shea Michaels also was born in Biloxi to an Air Force father on October 8, 1975.
Michaels says he was a “gypsy child,” moving around a lot because of his father’s line of work, but as a young boy he was always given the opportunity to spend summers back home in a small community called Necaise Crossing in Hancock County, Miss.
“In the fall, when school started back and we had to leave, my heart and soul would yearn for the next spring when I could get back home,” he said. “I remember I’d run to the school library and find Hancock County on the map. I always told people I was from Biloxi, because Necaise Crossing hadn’t made it on the map yet. Hell, it still might not be on there.”
In addition to Ledoux, Michaels’ musical style has been influenced by an eclectic list of artists, including Stevie Ray Vaughan, Ray Charles, George Jones, Van Morrison, Zac Brown Band, Bob Marley, Edwin McCain, Merle Haggard, Jimmy Buffett, the Allman Brothers, Warren Haynes and Government Mule.
When he’s not on stage in his well-worn Chuck Taylors, Michaels can be found in a front-porch rocking chair, close to the beach with his friends and family, maybe a little rum and a whole lot of his acoustic Martin guitar.
Today, that gypsy child has grown into one of his generation’s most talented musicians with a genre-defying style that borrows heavily from reggae, Southern rock & bluegrass, but pays deep respect to his traditional country roots.
The saltwater guitar riffs and soulful, laidback twang that fans have come to expect will be on full display when Shea Michaels’ releases his new album, Adventures of Calico Jack, in the spring of 2012.
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