Draft:Mike McGuire (musician) 2

Mike McGuire is an American musician/songwriter best known as the drummer for the Grammy winning Country music band Shenandoah

The most prolific and successful songwriter in the band Shenandoah, drummer Mike McGuire has had numerous Shenandoah cuts including the #1 hit, “If Bubba Can Dance (I Can Too)”, penned with Bob McDill and Marty Raybon and also ‘Her Leaving’s Been a Long Time Coming’ which featured Super Bowl Dallas Cowboy quarterback and NFL Hall of Famer Troy Aikman and country music legend Eddie Arnold in the music video. But it was his drumming that got him into the band to start with. After seeing a pair of drumsticks in a mall showcase window at the age of 5, Mike asked his mom to buy them for him and after some time of beating on Tupperware bowls in the family living room he graduated to real drums by 3rd grade. By the time he was in high school he was playing in local bands and toying with the idea of moving to the iconic Muscle Shoals, Alabama which was only 50 miles away from his home town.

As fate would have it his brother Bud McGuire became a songwriter for legendary producer Rick Hall which opened the door for Mike to enter. And after playing drums on songwriter demos and writing songs of his own, a local night club hired the guys that became Shenandoah where they played until Rick Hall and Robert Byrne talked them into recording a handful of songs to pitch for a record deal. Soon afterwards they were signed to CBS records in Nashville.