Music
Press
Mike Beck's Rooted, continues to rise on the Roots Music Alt/Country Chart occupying #28 this week.
"Mike's plowing new ground. He's not re-recording the old Hollywood matinee music from the 30's and 40's. You've got to have focus and keep producing good stuff. I think he walks that... He's better than all those newer western guys." -Ian Tyson
"Mike is one of those with the cowboy in his heart. These songs are filled with braided rawhide and mission bells... Listen up friend"
-Tom Russell: Texas
"Mike plays the guitar like a Byrd. His strings do things that mine could never do. they obey the slightest finger-touch commands like a fine Reining Horse"
- Friend, Ramblin' Jack Elliot
Mike Beck writes about the people, landscapes, and emotions of the American West, which he knows intimately as a working cowboy in Montana. Beck's West is not the sometimes overblown caricature of drama, but the quiet intimacy of the mariposa wind of the title track, the sound of leather creaking in a rider's saddle, and the mingling of cultures and languages of " Mi Caballo Negro Poncho". Set in this context and framed with Southwestern guitar flavors, the Mamas and the Papas hit " California Dreamin" takes on a new perspective and becomes a longing for a return to the rural West. He also covers Woody Guthrie's " Deportee" and Joni Mitchell's "Carey". The nine original tunes reinforce Beck's place alongside Michael Martin Murphey, Tom Russell, and Ian Tyson [ Tyson co-wrote one track on this disc] as a poet of the modern West with a distinctive viewpoint. [KD]
Dirty Linen Folk Music Magazine
...Beck's a guitarist steeped in the Bakersfield sound, and writes excellent and evocative songs. Earlier albums trace his cowboy life, Mariposa Wind being the best. Beck's new one, Rooted, is a departure of sorts. "George Orwell's 113th Dream" is evidence, as is one of the more subtle, moving anti-war songs around, "Amanda Come Home", a mercy plea for a woman he knows who's stationed in Iraq. Rooted also boasts a nakedly emotional "I Want You", one of the best Dylan covers you'll ever hear. This is intelligent and genuine Americana music by a man who's tamed wild horses the world over, spent many nights around the fire at cowboy gatherings. When Mike Beck shakes the pucky off his boots and plugs in his B-bender guitar to sing his song, he's got something to say… and his new album captures his evolving artistry very, very well...
Doug Lang, Freight Train Boogie
I've always been drawn to music that has soul. Music that has roots, a voice with some reality to it. That's what makes Mike Beck with his music and poetry so refreshing to me. His art comes from his life. He has lived the life he sings about....Listen to his music. It's as real, as raw, and as inviting as the romantic life he has led. It takes you in and leads you to another time, another life. It's not a John Wayne movie. It's not a Nashville singer wearing a western hat. It's Mike Beck, and he's the real thing...Walkin' Jim Stoltz
This Weeks Roots Music Report:
http://www.rootsmusicreport.com/2.0/charts.php?name=altcountry
Mike Beck
www.myspace.com/reatarecords
www.mikebeck.com - Dorothy Hamm
Discography
CDs: Rooted
Mariposa
Where the Green Grass Grows
Cowboys & Angels
KPIG 107.5FM
"George Orwell's 113th Dream"
"Meth"
"OilDale"
"Quite Like This"
Photos
Bio
Mike Beck
MIKE BECK & THE BOHEMIAN SAINTS
Rooted... (Reata)
Mike Beck is a guitarist steeped in the Bakersfield sound, and writes excellent and evocative songs. Earlier albums like his best, Mariposa Wind, trace his cowboy life, while his latest album, Rooted, is a departure of sorts. "George Orwell's 113th Dream" is evidence of a mercy plea for a woman he knows stationed in Iraq. This is intelligent and genuine Americana music by a man who's tamed wild horses the world over and spent many nights around the fire at cowboy gatherings. When Mike Beck shakes the pucky off his boots and plugs in his B-bender guitar to sing his song, he's got something to say
and his new album, Rooted, captures his evolving artistry very, very well.-Doug Lang, Freight Train Boogie
Most will talk about Beck's expertise guitar playing, both acoustic and electric Fender Telecaster. His style has developed over his more than 30 years playing guitar with and for some of the best including: The Gene Parsons Band [of The Byrds] Vern Gosdin, Suzy Boggus, Ian Tyson, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Michael Martin Murphey and Steve Wariner. You'll find him at festivals such as the National Cowboy Gathering, Monterrey Cowboy Poetry and Music Festival, and the Texas Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Alpine, TX. He has toured with Ranblin' Jack and Ian Tyson.
Others will talk about his "down home" lyrics, and how they have been touched by his poetry and how they can relate to the stories he tells. His life as he has lived it and the people he has met and not met along the way give telling tales to Mike Beck's life. Of the people Beck wished he had met is John Steinbeck. His newest CD, Rooted, features "John Steinbeck Drank In Here", which is about the places Steinbeck once visited. The release of the CD led Beck on a rollicking fun tour of those very clubs Steinbeck visited.
Another song on Rooted is titled "Amanda, Come Home". This anti-war song about a young woman gone away to war was featured on NPRs Weekend Edition. Beck has said "women tend to be healers" and he can only imagine "how, just a few years ago a young girl was bringing home a baby bird with a broken wing and now she is in the Middle East doing a job she perhaps never imagined she would be doing".
No matter wich side of the multi-talented, singer/songwriter, musician, compassionate, or cowboy you're talking about, there seems to one common denominator throughout and that is. . . Respect.
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Beck performs solo or with his band The Bohemian Saints
Visit him online at www.mikebeck.com and www.myspace.com/reatarecords
Links
