Michael's Touring Biography:

Like any musician who has been around awhile, my influences are many and varied.   I suppose my earliest influences were the records my parents had, Judy Collins, Simon and Garfunkel, and a Bobbie Gentry 45. Then there was a stack of 45's I got from a family friend who worked at a radio station. I listened to pop radio all through the 70's, what a great time that was.."Song sung blue, weepin' like a willow" (but big boys don't cry).

I gave up playing violin in the school orchestra after 5 years, and took up guitar to follow my aspirations to be the fifth member of KISS. I quickly turned to Dylan, Neil Young, The Beatles, James Taylor, CSN(and sometimes Y), Cat Stevens, etc. I began performing "Michael Grady" versions of their songs and many songs like them, as well as everything from Hendrix, Bowie and Pink Floyd to Prine, Kristofferson, and Willie Nelson. I have also been going through a Frank Zappa phase for about 25 years. In recent years I have found my comfort-level within contemporary folk genre, which is wider than I ever imagined.

My current influences are artists like Lucinda Williams, Mark Knofler, Jack Johnson, Gillian Welch (and of course David Rawlings), Kasey Chambers, Robert Johnson, Nora Jones. I have been most-recently influenced by the musicians I have met right here in my own house and on locations where I am sometimes lucky enough to record them for a local radio show in Akron, OH. Artists both known and unknown like, David Wilcox, Jim Photoglo, Freebo, Steppin' In It, Jack Williams, Rachel Davis, Boulder Acoustic Society, Sally Spring, Kelly Zullo, Jeff Dernlan, Deisel, Bruce Holmes, Crabapple, Doug and Judy Koch Smith, and many, many others. It has been a good couple of years for influences. Other than that I can be influenced by almost anything -- kids playing, waterfalls, thunder, laughter, love. And everybody loves the sound of a train in the distance.

Michael's Web Site