Micheal Laferty Texas Live Music
Micheal Laferty started writing and performing his own music as a teenager in the Willamette Valley of Oregon. In 1975 he began working full time as a road musician in the cocktail lounges and hotel chains up and down the West Coast. As the front man, bass guitarist, and resident songwriter, his tunes were always in the standard repertoire of every band with which he worked. Micheal's reputation as a songwriter and vocalist caught people's attention, and by 1976 several Pacific Northwest bands were covering his tunes.
Micheal started working as an acoustic solo act in the early 80's, and for the next decade would be the Jimmy Buffet clone on the West Coast, interspersing his own material when ever possible. In the liner notes of his first CD Gulf Stream Breezes, Micheal reflects “…my songs were written originally just for my own edification…I had no idea that there was any potential commercial value to them…they were just there and needed to come out! So I would write them, and occasionally when I got a wild hair on stage, I would play them between the cover songs. I'll be damned if people didn't like them, and start to request them. Sometimes they even sang along, I was a happy camper!” It was a natural progression, and nobody was surprised when in 1992, Micheal packed away his guitar and left Oregon, on a sailboat.
Micheal floated into Texas three years later and settled into life on the Gulf Coast. Although he now calls South Padre Island Texas home, Micheal spends his time happily wandering between the Rio Grande, New Orleans, and the Florida Keys. His music, being a reflection of his lifestyle and surroundings, is garnering recognition, in the Americana/Texas Music genre here in the States as well as Europe. But additionally, Micheal has become a defining benchmark in the today's huge “Gulf Coast Americana” market.
It is an ironic twist that this Oregon native who worked the clubs of the Pacific Northwest so extensively for over 20 years should finally begin to gain national attention with the mistaken identity as a “Texas Songwriter”. But a rapidly growing loyal following of fans and media alike are comparing Micheal with such notables as Robert Earl Keen, Joe Ely, Lyle Lovett, Jerry Jeff Walker, and Jimmy Buffett.
Possessing a great repertoire of material that seamlessly interweaves in and out of all facets of human emotion; an uncanny ability to interact personally with members of his audience that leaves each of them feeling as if the show was just for them, a blazingly wicked wit, and an unabashed love for what he does, all combine to make a J. Micheal Laferty show an event to remember.