Mike O'Cull

Guitarist/songwriter/teacher/journalist MIKE O'CULL is a familiar presence on the Midwest music scene. He has worked with ex-Sonia Dada frontman Paris Delane and members of Chicago's Grammy-nominated Liquid Soul as well as many nationally known tribute artists including Rick "Elvis" Saucedo, Irv Kass, and Denny Diamond. He currently plays guitar for Midwest country music favorites The White Saddle Band but can also be seen with the Change of Habit Tribute Band, Southern Rock/Funk group 8 Miles South, and the acoustic duo The Better Half. He is experienced in original and cover music, plays electric and acoustic, and has a reputation as one of the best sidemen in the Chicago market. A partial list of venues and clients he has performed in or worked with would include House of Blues Chicago, Chicago Blues Festival, WGN-TV News, Soldier Field, the United Center, Fox Theater in Boulder, CO, Special Olympics, The Belly Up in Aspen, CO, Buddy Guy's Legends, Martyrs', Uncommon Ground, Navy Pier, KBCO Radio in Boulder, CO, and many more. Mike is also emerging as a songwriter and one of his songs, "Look This Nice," received an Honorable Mention in the 2007 Great Lakes Songwriting Contest. Savvy readers may recognize O'Cull's name from his other career, that of music journalist. He is a regular contributor to the Illinois Entertainer, which is the largest music magazine in the Midwest and boasts 200,000 audited readers monthly and which has published O'Cull's reviews and feature articles since the year 2000. He was also part of the old www.Chicagogigs.com for the first six years of it's existence and helped build that site into one of the city's most popular live music web destinations. His work has also appeared in Gig Magazine, Bassics, and Bass Frontiers. He does press releases, bios, liner notes, and web content for other area artists, as well.

www.thewhitesaddleband.com
www.myspace.com/mikeocullmusic
www.illinoisentertainer.com