Right outta the banks of the swamps at Shooter's Hill Trailer Park,comes these three boys.

There's Steve.
Slappin' that ol' wooden tub ‘til his fingers bleed.

There's Mike.
Playin' that guitar like his playin' with himself.

An' there's Rob.
The drummer. The man that keeps it all together.

Playin' music they call Cowbilly. It's a raw an' low down dirty form of rock'a'billy, filled with both country an' western. But them boys don't only play their own tunes. They got some oldies on the repertoire as well. They're mixin' it up purty good! An' maybe, I say maybe, there's a tune you wanna here, they don't know that good. Don't worry. After midnight, they'll play anythin'!

Mike Bonanza.
The man. The myth. The legend... Who..? The man no one heard of...
The music no one heard. The pic's no one seen. This genious. It all started at Shooter's Hill Trailer Park in 1979. He got his first guitar from his grandma an' grandpa when he was 14. He spent the most time practicin'. An' that made him what he is today. A virtuoso. At Mike's home, there was no radio or TV, so he had to listen to music at his friends. An' due to that, or thanks to that, he developed that characteristic style of guitar playin'. The lack of influences formed his style of playin', a style that many guitar players have copied. Some of you might think that part of Mikes songs seem familiar, but Mike was the original. But he don't care about that.

A lot of the ol' time guitarists like Gary Moore, Steve Vai, Eddie van Halen, to mention a few, are very thankful of what Mike done. Brian Setzer once said in an interview, he wouldn't be where he is without Mike. One can wonder how it comes you ain't heard the music, seen the pic's or seen the videos earlier? The thing is Mike's been creatin' music all the time. But from the start he didn't agree with his former manager, Eric Sommerstien. He wanted to control Mike an' do things the way he thought was the right way. Mike didn't like that. Later on Mike said in an interview "See what happened to Elvis..."

In spite resistance from Sommerstien, Mike continued to write music. Probably the love to the music an' the guitar was so strong that he never gave up. Somethin' music lovers all over the world are very grateful of. It ain't no strange thing that he's called "The guitarist who changed the world".

http://www.mikebonanza.com 
http://www.myspace.com/mikebonanza 
mikebonanza@live.se 

Courtesy of Mike Bonanza, 2010