...and check out First World Problem,
another new song from the forthcoming album "Motherland"
(Release in Summer 2023!)
For more than two decades, Michael Shay has combined North American and international music styles, surprising audiences at every turn. As a singer-songwriter, cellist, producer, multi-media and music-therapy collaborator, cultural ambassador, and pedagogue, Shay's projects have never ceased to broaden horizons and blur borders.
Now, for the first time in his career, Shay is performing solo. His new songs touch on themes of land, class, family, migration, seasons, gender and love, as well as personal and historical mythologies emanating from his most recent homes in New Mexico and Ecuador.
Summer 2023 will see the release of these songs on the new album "Motherland", followed by a USA tour in Fall 2023.
Despite plenty of twang in his rich baritone voice, Shay's Texas-Folk roots are not more, nor less, apparent in his songwriting than myriad other influences gained living and collaborating around the world.
A cursory list of genres in which Shay has worked includes Andean, Balkan, Blues, Classical, Folk, Pop, Gnawa, Jam-Band, Jazz, Cumbia, Tango, Swing, Klezmer, Sephardic, Manouche, Experimental, Salsa, Old-Time, Pan-European, Bluegrass, Psychedelic, Brazilian (Forró/Choro/Bossa), Country, Reggae, Rock, West African chamber jazz...
The album, "Like a River; The Songs of Jim Harris" was released in November 2017. Co-produced in Ecuador with French guitarist Donald Régnier and featuring the songs of Shay's longtime collaborator Jim Harris (a fellow Texan), the album features Ryan Hagler, Matt Giles, Marty Muse on pedal steel (Robert Earl Keen), Brian Oberlin, Chris Kee (Peter Rowan/Buddy Miller), "King" Louis Pain on B-3 organ, plus engineering and mixing by Chris Shaw (Bob Dylan).
"Like a River" is available on iTunes, or
Amazon. Read more about the album here, or download a free track here: Desire
As cellist in world music accordion-cello duo The Just Desserts, kora-cello-trumpet-percussion ensemble The Koratet, and as singer-songwriter/guitarist leading his country-folk/bluegrass band The Texas Express, Shay released multiple albums and performed in Canada, Italy, Spain, Morocco, Germany, France, Denmark, Ecuador, Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela, Mexico, Costa Rica and the United States. He has worked as a cultural ambassador in Ecuador and Colombia, performing and leading workshops under the auspices of the US State Department.
For 15 years, Shay directed an early-childhood music school which he established in Austin, Texas, later going on to coordinate the Community Music Center for the City of Portland, Oregon from 2019- 2021. He continues to mentor a select group of international students as a private instructor.