November/ December 2008
Mike has once again performed at the 2008 BC Country Music as
part of the house band, backing up artists such as George
Canyon, Aaron
Pritchett,
Deric
Ruttan, Gord
Bamford and many others. Mike was honored to once again
receive the BCCMA "Keyboard Player Of The Year" award. Mike has recently
played on recordings for artists such as Fera, One
More Girl, Sheila Deck,
Danny Lovelock, producer Ben
Karlstrom, Kane Churko and Modern
Science, Tommy
Kuszel with producer Fito
Garcia and the RzR band. In December Mike joins the
CP
Holiday Train for his 5th year - this time performing with award winning
singers Tracey
Brown and Johnny Reid. Also signed up for the band is drummer Pat
Steward.
August/ September 2008
Once again Mike is part of the house band of the Canadian
Country Music Awards show which will be broadcast on CBC on September 8. The house
band will be performing with artists such as Kellie
Pickler, Terri Clark, Crystal
Shawanda and Randy Bachman. Aaron
Pritchett's new record "Thankful" is
released on September 9. In addition to playing keyboards and singing
background vocals, Mike co produced the record. In mid - September
Mike serves a musical director for the Vancouver Comedy Festival . The festival features world class
comedians such as Janeane Garofolo, Jimmy
Pardo, Paul F. Tompkins, The Fun
Bunch, Carol Burnett and others. Starting September 21 Mike begins a three
and a half week cross Canada tour with CP's Olympic
Spirit Train presentation.
Mike plays with a variety of artists including violinist Sierra
Noble and dancer
Dallas Arcand.
June/ July 2008
Mike has been commissioned to write a portion of the
finale music for this year's HSBC
Celebration Of Light - an annual
fireworks competition which takes place in Vancouver's English Bay
to a crowd of at least 200,000. The theme of the piece is "BC150" as
the province of BC turns 150 years old this year. In addition, Mike
and producer Randall Prescott have written a song which has been licensed
by the BC Government for tourism purposes. On the live front - Mike
joins legendary Canadian group Chilliwack for two shows in Halifax,
NS and Triton, NF.
April 2008
Mike joins Jessie Farrell on a western canada tour as a support act
for Alan Jackson and Brooks
and Dunn. Recent recording sessions for Mike include
Saving
Grace, Divine Brown, Shari
Lynn, Aaron Pritchett and The
DJ Killers.
November/ December 2007
In November, Mike works with Aaron
Pritchett on his new
album as well as performing dates in BC, Alberta and Saskatchewan. In December
Mike rides the rails for a fourth year with Canadian
Pacific's Holiday Train - performing with Wide
Mouth Mason and Melanie Doane.
October/November 2007
Mike heads to Souda Bay on the Greek Island of Crete with Mike
Macdonald,
Jenny
Galt, Taylor
James, Wide
Mouth Mason's Shaun
Verreault and Patricia
Conroy. They are there to perform a show for the crew of the HMCS
Toronto and the USS
Bainbridge. Mike is part of a small backup band - a trio with
guitarist Tom Mckillip and drummer Jayson
Brinkworth. After that, Mike heads
in the studio to co-produce Aaron
Pritchett's new CD. On Oct. 25 Mike performs
with Kelly Brock on the Global
Morning News performing her new single (which
he co-wrote) called "Wake Up".
September 2007
Mike performs at the 2007 CCMA Awards as part of the house band backing up acts
such as Carolyn Dawn Johnson, Paul
Brandt, George Canyon, Emerson
Drive and
many others. After that Mike continues performing several dates with Aaron
Pritchett around Manitoba and Ontario.
Mike also serves as musical director
for this year's Vancouver Comedy Festival from Sept. 18-22 featuring David
Cross, Bob Odenkirk, Maria
Bamford, The Trailer Park Boys and many others.
He will also be producing a Christmas song for Jessie
Farrell. Sessions this
month include tracks for producer Doug
Fury and artist Pat Milino.
June/ July 2007
Mike will be at The Buffalo Club in Vancouver on June
26 as part of a benefit 'Rock
Against Diabetes'. Mike will sit in with
jam band Combustible
Jimmy as well as perform with Eric
Martin, lead
singer of rock band Mr. Big. Also he continues to play dates this summer
with Aaron
Pritchett. Mike also appears on new albums by Lindsay
Martell and Nikki Werner.
April 2007
Mike travels to France as part of the 90th anniversary of the famous battle of Vimy Ridge. The ceremony will include a rededication of the refurbished Vimy Ridge memorials and will be attended by several worldwide dignitaries. Mike is part of the house band and is performing with several artists including Susan Aglukark.
More Aaron Pritchett dates follow later that month including dates in Vancouver, Alberta, Boston and Nashville.
March 2007
Mike is part of a short US tour with a remarkable artist named Nazanin. Nazanin is a former Miss Canada and Miss World runner up whose humanitarian work (notably her efforts in helping free an Iranian girl who was to be executed for killing a man in self defense who was trying to rape her) has brought her international acclaim. Her debut album is released on April 24 and this trip, which starts on March 12 in Los Angeles, is part of her promotional tour. Please visit her website and MySpace page for updates and to help her with other humanitarian cause.
After the final date on March 22 Mike flies Halifax, NS and starts a two week eastern Canada run with Aaron Pritchett which concludes in London, ON on April 1.
January 2007
Happy 2007! Mike continues to tour with Aaron Pritchett in 2007. Please visit Aaron's website for updated tour dates. Mike now has a MySpace page! Also, Mike also has a new blog containing commentaries on his musical activities and can be viewed here.
December 2006
This month Mike once again is part of CPR's Holiday Train performing with featured artists Wide Mouth Mason and Lisa Brokop. The tour begins in Montreal PQ on Dec. 1 and finishes up in Port Moody BC on December 19. This month Mike is featured on guitarist James Rogers' new CD as well as Rocky Jr.'s "Yellow Disc" (co-written and produced by Mike).
October 2006
Mike has played on albums this month for Scotland's Biffy Clyro, Karla Crawford, Emily Adams and Brent Howard. He will be performing in the house band for the BCCMA awards on Oct. 15 at the Bell Centre in Surrey BC with many talented artists including the legendary Ian Tyson.
Mike also continues playing with Aaron Pritchett on his remaining 2006 tour dates including a gig at the WCM Awards show in Winnipeg.
September 2006
Mike continues to tour with Aaron Pritchett throughout Canada with some US dates later this year. Mike will be performing on the Canadian Country Music Awards show with Aaron and Theory Of A Deadman vocalist Tyler Connelly. On the same show, Mike also is part of the show's house band under the direction of Tom Mckillip. They will perform a '30 Year Medley' with Michelle Wright and Brad Johner.
May/June 2006
On May 12 Mike performs as part of the house band at the Walk of Stars benefit in Merritt, BC with Ian Tyson, Carolyn Dawn Johnson, Adam Gregory, Lisa Brokop and others. Beginning May 22 Mike begins a two week US tour with Italian singer Patrizio Buanne which starts in Saratoga CA and finished in New York, NY.
April 2006
Mike has just finished production work on the second Rocky
Jr. EP "The Yellow Disc" which will be released soon. Mike
performs with Rocky on April 12 at the Buffalo Club in
Vancouver and April 27 at The Point in Port Moody.
Mike also will play in with Aaron Pritchett as a support act for
Brooks and Dunn and Sara Evans. This tour coincides with the
release of Aaron's new CD "The Big Wheel". Mike played on
this CD and co wrote a song called "Gone".
February 2006
Mike will be bandleader again this year at the Puck
Bunny Ball - the wrap up party for the Sea
To Sky Hockey Challenge on Feb. 4. Acts include Paul
Hyde, Bill
Henderson, Jakalope, Tyler
Stewart of the Barenaked
Ladies and John
Mann. Mike will also be with Aaron
Pritchett for dates in Ontario Feb.
14-19.
January 2006
Happy New Year! Rocky Jr.'s CD "The Green Disc" which Mike
co-wrote, played on and co-produced is officially released. It's available
online at www.rockyjr.com.
Excellent songs - check it out - this guy is going to be a superstar! Mike
plays with Rocky at the Buffalo
Club in Vancouver on Jan 27.
Mike will be also be touring with
Aaron
Pritchett in January.
November/December 2005
Mike is performing on CPR's
'Holiday Train' tour - beginning Dec. 2
in Montreal PQ and finishing up Dec. 17 in Port Moody BC. Artists include
The Moffatts and Amanda
Stott.
October 2005
Mike performs with Mike Reno and others at the River
Rock Casino in
Richmond on Oct. 2.
On Oct. 16 Mike will be playing in the house
band for the BCCMA awards show
Mike wins BCCMA Keyboard Player of the Year for the 2nd year in a row!
September 2005
Mike will be in Calgary performing on the Canadian
Country Music Awards show Sept. 12 with Lisa
Brokop and Amanda Wilkinson. Also that weekend
Mike will play with Aaron Pritchett.
Mike is also nominated for a CCMA award for keyboard player of the
year.
'Lucky For Me', Mike's co write for Aaron
Pritchett, has been in the
Top 10 for six weeks now.
August 2005
'Lucky For Me', a song from Aaron
Pritchett's 'Something Going On Here'
CD which Mike co wrote has made the Top 10 in Canada.
June/ July 2005
Mike is out for the summer touring season with Lisa
Brokop including
dates throughout Canada and some U.S. stops. Also some gigs with Aaron
Pritchett. Also, production begins on Aaron's new CD. Mike will be
playing keyboards on it as well as co writing one song.
April/ May 2005
Mike performs dates with Aaron
Pritchett.
Also, Mike has begun writing and producing songs for singer/ guitarist
Rocky
Jr.
Mike played on the soundtrack for a new movie starring Harrison
Ford - song title and release date have not been released.
March 2005
Watch Lisa
Brokop with Mike and Tom Mckillip on Canada
AM on March 18.
Also, Lisa, Tom and Mike perform two songs on CMT
Central. Segments
were taped for a special on Lisa to be aired on CMT.
Feb. 2005
For the first half of February Mike finishes up the western Canada tour
with Lisa
Brokop. On Feb. 26 Mike will be bandleader at the Sea To Sky
Hockey Challenge benefit concert featuring Colin
James, Jim Cuddy, Mike
Reno, Aaron
Pritchett and many others yet TBA. For info go to www.seatoskyhockey.com.
Jan. 2005
Mike will be on tour with Lisa
Brokop in support of her new CD 'Hey
Do You Know Me' (Curb/EMI). Check www.lisabrokop.com
for updated tour dates. The tour begins Jan. 26 in Vancouver BC.