Michael McNenly
5
top 50
16
songs
4.0K
plays
There Goes My Heart Again There Goes My Heart Again
60's rock inspired by the movie, "That Thing You Do". Back when songs were simple and to the point.
Red, White, And Blue Red, White, And Blue
Written after 9/11 about a coward named "Osama".
Show all (16)
Michael is a multi-instrumentalist. His main instrument being guitar, he also plays bass, keyboards, drums, percussion, mandolin, banjo, and vocals.Band/artist history
Mike became a musician at the age of 11. Being a fan of the Monkees TV show, he wanted to learn to play guitar. His mother bought him a cheap guitar, and paid for lessons (2 per week). After less than a month, his teacher explained to his mother that any further lessons would be a waste of money. The teacher came to that conclusion after Mike asked if the intro to "Day Tripper" (which he learned on his own - by ear) was correct. His teacher had no idea.
Mike won 3 talent show awards during junior high school, and during high school, won the "Best Male Vocalist" award in 1973 for the top-level choir.
Mike then performed in "Top 40" bands, and started writing original songs. He joined "Somersault", a band which generated a large So Cal. following. They recorded a demo at Michael Allsup's (guitarist with Three Dog Night) home studio. Their songs were played on KLOS, KMET, KWEST, and KNAC radio stations. After the keyboardist left the band, they re-grouped, with Mike on guitar and keyboards (again, self-tought). They went through several contract negotiations.
After many years, Mike left the band, and on the same night, received a call to join "Metro Hotel", as a "fill-in" keyboardist. Two nights later, they were opening for Allan Holdsworth, performing 2 shows at the Golden Bear in Huntington Beach. A week after that, they opened for Holdsworth, performing 4 shows at The Roxy on the Sunset Strip. They later opened for Rick Derringer at a Billy Barty-owned club.
Frustrated, and getting nowhere, Mike dropped out of the LA music scene, but kept writing songs.
I love talking in third person...Your musical influences
Influences, hmmm... Beatles, Monkees, Badfinger, Paul McCartney, Eric Clapton.What equipment do you use?
You're kidding, right? OK, you asked for it...!
Acoustic guitars: Yamaha and Applause.
Electric guitars: Gibson Les Paul, Kramer Focus, G&L, Squire Telecaster (my current favorite), and Danelectro DC 12 string, cables.
Amplifiers: Marshall Studio 15 combo with 12" Celestion, Randall RG-30 with 12" Celestion, Mitchell Pro-100 combo with 12" JBL, cables.
Keyboards / modules: Ensoniq Mirage-DSK, Yamaha TX81Z, EMU Proteus/1, Alesis QSR with Vintage Synths, Vintage Keys, and Classical Q-cards, Alesis D4 triggered with Drum Kat DK-10, cables, cables.
Recording: DOD 866 series II gated/comp/limiter, home-made AMD 1.4ghz computer running Cakewalk 9.0 and various effects software, cables, Native Instruments B4 software on separate Pentium 200MMX computer, cables. EV Sentry 100a, Auratone 5c "cube" monitors, and Philips/Magnavox speakers from a $79.00 boom-box, cables. Shure SM-81, Shure SM-58, AKG C3000, Studio Projects C1 Mics, cables. Tascam M-1516 mixer, Peavey/Cakewalk StudioMix controller, cables. Johnson J-Station, Tech21 GT2, Zoom Driver 5000, cables, cables, cables.
Did I mention cables?
And that's just the stuff I use currently. I could have listed all the equipment that I used in the past (on some of the older songs).Anything else?
All instruments and vocals performed by Mike, except as indicated in the "story" section on:
-I Want You (Please Come Back To Me)
-Last One In The Bathroom
-Fade Away
-Song In ProgressContact
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Comments (4)
Happy Birthday
Mike...
Really touched me more than one would imagine. Made me want to reach out to that "special someone" in a way I hadn't for a long time.
Mike...
It's as beautiful as the first time I heard it! The guitar instrumentals towards the end give me "chills".
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