Michael ONeill

Michael ONeill's "Run To Make It" opens with a simple declaration, "I am a Man", while lap steel tears into a sizzling line. While the major labels have been focused on alternately catering to, and suing, the 8 to 18 year old demographic, a group of veteran musical statesmen is quietly emerging as an antedote to the seemingly endless supply of pretty young boys with guitars. In the vein of great storytellers like Johnny Cash, Michael ONeill comes armed with vignettes of open-eyed romance, highway drama, and hard-earned tenderness, bringing the confidence and attitude that comes only from experience.

Michael ONeill has seen both sides of the music industry coin. One of 13 children, he got started in music early. At the age of 24, he cut his teeth opening his first tour for a then-unknown band called U2. By the time the tour ended in Los Angeles, ONeill found himself signed with legendary Manager Don Arden (Father of Sharon Osbourne and manager of Ozzy). A record deal followed not soon after.

ONeill put together a band that featured a young John Shanks (now superstar producer of Sheryl Crow, Alanis Morrisette, Vertical Horizon, and others), Kenny Gradney (Little Feat), and Boney James (the Isley Brothers). He spent the better part of the next 10 years touring with the likes of Stevie Ray Vaughn and penning songs with Bob Weir (Grateful Dead), Steve Cropper (Booker T. and The MG's), and Jason Scheff (Chicago). His band held down a weekly gig at the hottest club in town, The Central (now known as The Viper Room), playing to packed houses. Despite all this, his label shelved each album he recorded and the limelight eluded him. Eventually, the disappointments of the music business took their toll on his family life.

As the '90s approached, O'Neill fled Southern California for his hometown of Tacoma WA, to raise horses and focus on his family. "I retreated to gain some perspective and try to keep my family together", ONeill says, "I did pretty good on the perspective part." Working quietly on material for nearly a decade, ONeill found himself happily remarried and content but the itch to record and tour returned. In 1999, he released "Dream On" independently to critical acclaim, garnering airplay throughout the country. In 2004, that itch returned again.

The result is an uncommon album of 10 songs that documents an artist in his prime. From The Beginning showcases a man who knows himself; strengths, weaknesses, warts and all. Part country crooner, part haggard storyteller, ONeill makes a noise that is refreshingly classic. Drawing on heroes like Roy Orbison and Bob Dylan for inspiration, "From The Beginning"plays like old-time rock and roll, deceptively simple yet focused on craft and execution.