User:DenverD/Mike Andersen

Mike Andersen (born Mikkel Andersen, February 25, 1977, Aarhus, Denmark) is a Danish blues and soul songwriter, guitarist, singer and bandleader of the Mike Andersen Band.

Musical career
Already at 12 years old blues, rhythm & blues and African-American music had taken a firm grip on Mike Andersen. While everyone around him in Denmark was listening to a mix of Wham, Duran Duran and Madonna, he practiced guitar along with the the LPs of Lightning Hopkins, B.B. King, Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, Albert King, Otis Rush and many more. Later, as Mike focused on voices and words he ventured into the soul stars and Al Green, Donny Hathaway and Marvin Gaye were added to his collection of vinyl.

At 20, Mike met the blues guitarist Otis Grand. Otis and his six piece band perfectly framed the music Mike had listened to his whole life, from raw urban blues to sweaty '60s soul. Otis invited the young Mike Andersen to one of his major shows in England where he participated as a guitarist in The Otis Grand All Star Revue at the 'The Great British R & B Festival in Colne, England. When Mike returned home to Denmark he had a firm resolve to form a six piece blues and soul band of his own.

Knocking around the blues and soul scene of Aarhus, Mike soon cranked up his Blues Crew band and quickly caught the attention of older, more established Danish musicians. Soon he formed The Mike Andersen Band whose first album, My Love For The Blues was released in 2002 as one of the last 15 years most striking Danish blues albums. It was imprinted with the relentless uncompromising attitude which has characterized his career since. Another significant studio album, Tomorrow released in 2004 and The Mike Andersen Band EP of 2006 followed along with hundreds of concerts across Europe, including opening for The Fabulous Thunderbirds and no less than three times for the legend B.B. King.

The 5th Annual Independent Music Awards (2005) winner in the blues songs category was Mike and the band's Stuck With Me.

During the last half of the decade, while honing his skills working with a variety of Danish local and international musicians, Mike was busy creating a new CD to show off his band's new sound. Two plus years in the making, when Echoes was released in early 2010 Mike was heralded as "an original interpreter of the old qualities" by the music editor of the nation's second largest newspaper, Politiken. GAFFA, a leading publisher of music news in Denmark for almost thirty years wrote that Echoes "is so far his best. Perhaps because . . . he dares to mix his interest in and enjoyment of the blues with his interest and pleasure in soul music." Three days later the countries leading pop radio station DR P4 named the new CD their Album of the Week. Then noted music journalist Peter Widmer wrote in the Odense Music Library's news about "Mike Andersen's voice that has evolved ... with great range, and is primarily in the center of Echoes, with lyrics about love, jealousy and passion as the main themes.

In Trumpet Magazine, a Danish Music Union publication, Mike tells the story of how he was able to connect with the Grammy award winning album producer and mixer Russell Elevado who final mixed Echoes.

Discography

 * 2002 My Love for the Blues a Five Star CD released by Black & Tan Records
 * 2004 Tomorrow CD
 * 2006 The Mike Andersen Band CD/EP
 * 2010 echoes released by Custom Records as CRCD003