Michael began playing guitar at 12 years old after giving up on accordion, French horn and double bass. He sang in school choir through high school and played in a quartet. He remembers learning "500 Miles" by Peter, Paul and Mary as his first song and was initially inspired by Paul Simon, Bob Dylan, Eagles, John Denver and Cat Stevens.

He went to college at Penn State where he performed concerts with friends and open mics at bars when he turned 21. After college he moved to Connecticut and started playing with friends (both named John) where he wrote "Software, Hardware, Is Getting Me Nowhere", his first song.

He later moved to Eugene, Oregon where he played with Beat Soup. With Beat Soup, The Caretakers and others, he played gigs all over Eugene and Corvallis. At this point, he started writing more songs, some of which showed up on his 2002 CD "Connected." He started his teaching career in Mapleton, OR where he kept writing songs and playing solo gigs. After 4 years he moved to Portland where he has lived since.

He first played electric music with the band "River Junction" at festivals around Portland. At the same time he accompanied Geoff Byrd as he began his singing career. After several "River Junction" members moved he focused on songwriting. Then he joined the band "Hortus Ortus", a 4-piece acoustic band in need of a lead guitarist/singer.

He made his first album in 2002, "Connected" which was released at the Rock Creek Tavern in Hillsboro, followed by his second album "Isn't It Time". He plays all instruments but drums. His latest album is "Awake", released in 2015. He is actively performing in the Portland metro area. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.