Michael grew up in Southern Indiana and began his music career as soon as he could sing in church. Originally, wanting to be a drummer, he banged on boxes, keeping time with the Dukes of Dixieland, until his father had heard all of that he could take and got him started on the trumpet. Michael played his horn in grade school, high school, and all city band / orchestra. At the age of 14, he talked his father into buying him a guitar. That 1st guitar cost a grand total of sixteen dollars! With determination and the promise of a better instrument, he taught himself to play from a borrowed chord book. His father was impressed and moved him up to a 'real' guitar - a 1967 Fender Jaguar. When not playing his trumpet or guitar, Michael spent time teaching himself to play the piano at a neighbor's house The first songs Michael began to write were simple remakes of hits from the Beatles, the Dave Clark Five, and on into the late sixties by artists such as the Doors and Buffalo Springfield. He and four other members of his high school formed a band and performed at various school and social functions through out Indiana, Illinois and Kentucky. The band renamed itself Carnival and created quite a stir, locally, and eventually evolved to a show band. Carnival was on the road for a number of years, touring mainly in the southern states. The original members of Carnival were together making music for 12 years. After leaving the road, Michael formed an all acoustic group of five members that performed together for 4 years. Michael was searching for something more to life; something to give his music meaning, and came face to face with the saving grace of God in Jesus Christ. That’s when his career started to develop into something bigger than himself. As Michael says, “When I found the Lord, music became a brand new endeavor. Of course, when God changes your heart, everything else has to change not because you have to, but, rather because you want to out of the realization of what He has done for you”. When Michael began to write for the Lord, the doors really opened and in two years he had a publishing deal with a BMI publisher. One month later, he got his first cut with Partners in Praise on REF Records. In fact, Partners in Praise cut two of his songs on that CD, a self titled work. He now performs his music for worship services and many types of church related functions as well as secular events. For a number of years, Michael has been involved with his local high school drama department, playing and composing music for high school productions. His life proverb is: 'God has been very gracious to me'. Michael believes that God's music should not be like the world's with just different lyrics. Just as believers in Christ do not resemble the world, but are annointed for service to the Lord, Christian music should follow the same path. Determination and a gift from God has resulted in a multi-talented instrumentalist and BMI songwriter that is turning a lot of heads in the Contemporary Christian genre.