March Music News

March Music News

Hey, Friend,

Not to sound like a broken record, but MAN is 2019 taking me for spin! This year has already been jam-packed with excitement, arising in some of the most unexpected places.

In January, I started working with a local creative collaborative called Ingenuity Cleveland, which hosts massive art, performance, and music festivals throughout the year. One of their early season projects is Brite Winter, a one-day, outdoor, five-stage music and art extravaganza bringing warmth and joy to the cold Cleveland winter in late February. A large team of artists, builders, musicians, performers, and everyday Clevelanders who wanted to make something beautiful joined together to fill three giant tents to the brim with giant art installations and interactive activities. I’m so proud to say that I not only helped on several major projects, but also designed an escape room style interactive game for one of the tents, which I then got to see played and completed by dozens of enthused families! It was so very rewarding to join this team and start creating larger-than-life experiences to share with my beloved city. Just as with my musical projects, I love creating experiences that are both literally and metaphorically multi-dimensional, and I’m looking very forward to continuing my involvement with Ingenuity for a long, long time.

Heading into spring, the hits just keep on coming: this weekend I’ll be playing the main entertainment stage at Cleveland’s Wizard World Comic Con! Though I’ve had the honor of playing at several other Wizard World events in other states, this will be my first time playing this event in the city I call home. Sharing the stage with celebrities like Kato Kaelin and Thomas Ian Nicholas is pretty cool, but I also get to share my visual art alongside my musical art as an Artist Alley vendor all weekend. And, of course, I get to check out all the wonderfully eccentric costumes that never fail to populate one of the largest comic conventions around!

At the end of the month, I’ll once again be making my way to New Jersey, for the annual Singer-Songwriter of Cape May conference. This will be my seventh year (I think?) in attendance, and I’m thrilled to once again be making the pilgrimage with my brother in musical arms, Kevin Conaway. Not only is the conference a great place for learning, networking, and building my skills, but I also get to play a showcase performance while I’m in town! It’s a very personally significant trip that has become a bit of a yearly ritual; I always leave the seaside town fired up and ready for what’s next.

Finally, I have a few things cooking for April already too! You may or may not know that National Record Store Day happens across the country, every year, and strives to celebrate indie music and record stores through patronage. This year it’ll be April 13, and I’ll be playing not one, but TWO live performances that day, the first at a locally run record shop – and I’ll be at each location with more than just my guitar’s groovy tunes to offer, if you catch my drift. Without officially announcing anything yet, like say, the release date for House of Ghosts in a beloved format, I’d say you’d be safe to mark your calendars and start…

THE VINYL COUNTDOWN!

Now that the groans from that pun have dissipated, here’s a rundown of the shows I’ve got coming up over the rest of this month. I’d love to see your smiling, grinning, smirking, or even pouting faces at one of them!

As always, there’s a chance I might end up picking up a few more shows over the coming weeks, so be sure to like my various social media accounts (Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram) and keep an eye on the Tour Dates page to make sure you don’t miss anything.

Once again, thank you for taking this journey with me. I can’t wait to see what happens next!

Cheers,
Michael