Michael Anthony Shanks
Houston, Texas, United States | SELF
Music
Press
What a man can do with a box and strings! - Pat Leach, KPFT
What a man can do with a box and strings! - Pat Leach, KPFT
If your going to listen to this album, be forewarned! The guitar is very powerful and at every corner it seduces you, manipulates you and that is what I would call the unifying force behind these tracks of such diverse origins. That is the "Shankster Style!" - Scatter Records
Brain is the story of one girl and her hilarious trip through time and space accompanied by original music from Michael Shanks and His Merry Shanksters. - Fringe Festival 2012
Brain is the story of one girl and her hilarious trip through time and space accompanied by original music from Michael Shanks and His Merry Shanksters. - Fringe Festival 2012
Did someone not break down and cry in the studio when Mr. Shanks was recording Lone Star Gypsy? What an incredibly emotional performance! - Palmer Mena - Houston Arts Alliance
Michael appeared on the NPR program the Front Row and was interviewed by Bob Stevenson as part of the 2012 Houston Fringe Festival. - The Front Row - NPR
Michael is an intrepid young guitarist who likes to groove. Cool in the act of musical performance, his vision of music is expanding very fast and I wish him success and luck in the musical universe.
~Jovino Santos Neto, three-time Grammy nominee - West Houston Jazz Fest
Michael is the winner of the 2008 Best New Artist Award - All About Jazz
Discography
2008 - Ruby's Jazz Garage LP.
Received airplay on over 50 stations and continues to be in rotation on college radio throughout the USA and Europe. Also earned Michael the Best New Artist award from All About Jazz.
2010 - Birthday Faces EP.
Recorded in Buenos Aires, this record launched Michael's tour through Southern Chile and Argentina.
2012 - Psychedelic Blues Collective LP
Still in rotation on three different continents been featured on multiple 713 News Broadcast.
2013 - Shankster Style LP
Ranked one of the best albums of 2013 of Adrian Quevedo of Scatter Records. Out now on the web and CD. http://www.shankstermusic.com/store.html
Photos
Bio
"An intrepid young guitarist who likes to groove" says Brazilian jazz legend Jovino Santos Neto. Born in Houston,TX, Michael Anthony Shanks has been traveling the world playing his original music for over a decade now. Jump starting his career in Austin, Shanks founded the band Ruby's Jazz Garage that opened for blues legend Pinetop Perkins and whose 2008 self-titled release won him the All About Jazz Best New Artist of 2008. In that same year Shanks traveled to Argentina to perform with the Mr. Jones Blues Band and tour the country. In 2010 Michael returned to the States to play and tour the Northwest with Jovino Santos Neto, Miles From Chicago and Down North.
In 2012 Shanks came back to Texas to open up the House of Blues Houston for the Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band and in 2013 he performed with Reggie Watts in New York City. Just released this summer, his solo debut album ''Shankster Style" has been described as containing "powerful guitar that seduces and manipulates you at every turn which is the unifying force behind such a diverse record."
Band Members
Links
