Mike Coleridge

Mike Coleridge has always had a deep passion for music. Early in his life, the lonesome sounds of traditional folk songs ruled his world. Musicians such as Mississippi John Hurt, Dave Van Ronk, Rambling Jack Elliot, the New Lost City Ramblers, and Bob Dylan (to name a few) were constantly inspiring his young mind, and pushing his thoughts beyond the confines of the world around him. Biting images of downtrodden miners, corrupt judges, lost travelers, righteous outlaws, and forsaken loves would prove to shape the landscape of his songwriting roots and unique artistic voice. At age ten, he found his first guitar sitting on the side of a highway that ran past his family’s small farmhouse in the Midwest. Old and warped, the guitar was barely salvageable, but Coleridge, determined to play the songs that he cherished, persevered, and never looked back.

Sometime in his early twenties, Mike Coleridge, guitar in hand, left the Midwest, and began traveling the country from coast to coast.

“I don’t really know why I started traveling around. I knew that the place I was at, the life I was living, didn’t add up anymore, didn’t have anything else to show me, knew I had to reach out and grab something that wasn’t quite in front of me, might cost me hardship I’d never known about before, but that if I didn’t do it, I’d stand to lose a great deal more. “

From the bars of New York City to the cafes of San Francisco and everywhere in between, he went from town to town, performing wherever he could, sleeping wherever he could, taking in every sound and sight that came across his path. It wasn’t long before his travels and experiences found a place in his songwriting.

“When you’re traveling round you have a way of seeing and hearing things different than when you’re staying in one place. Conversations, the looks on peoples faces, the heartbeat of the country, music, sunsets, storms, all of it, it all comes alive when you’re on the move. Things you might have missed before become unforgettable, and it’s almost like, I can’t get it out of my head, so it ends up becoming a song.”

And the songs came, songs like, “Something’s Eating at My Brain,” a scathing almost sarcastic reflection upon the absurdity of human existence and man’s struggle to make sense of that very reality; songs like, “Wondering Why” and “Don’t I Know You from Somewhere,” which spellbindingly conjure up the sorrow of lost love, and the pain of forlorn hope; songs like, “Awoke from a Dream,” and “Rich Man’s Son”, portraits of civilization in the throws of complete upheaval, where class, morality, justice, God, and the need to endure collide head on, and then, as if in a dust storm, break down. There are many more songs too, many of which, he can recite front to back, purely from memory.

“Sometimes, I’ll write them down, but for some reason I could always remember the words of songs. Some of those old folk songs, like ‘Barbara Ellen’ have fifteen, sixteen verses, but everyone of them stuck with me right away. The songs I write aren’t really there anyway, their always changing, always building up in my mind.”

When asked about the future, and what it has in store for him, Coleridge rubbed his eyes, and then with a wry smile replied, “That’s up to time. All I can do is watch, and try to keep a good head about it.”