Kevin St. Michael is a singer,songwriter and recording artist. His music is a weathered and worn blend of rock, gospel, blues, folk and jazz.
One of Kevin’s strongest attributes is his ability to sound both fresh and familiar at the same time. He accomplishes this by embracing his musical roots and influences but refusing to be limited by them. Instead, St. Michael uses his influences and a spirit of experimentation as a starting point and fine-tunes the initial creative spark into a highly accessible whole.
St. Micheal’s constant gigging and an openness to almost every genre of music has earned him a reputation as somewhat of a musical chameleon. Although this eclecticism has made him hard to categorize it has allowed him to play alongside all types of performers such as the Grammy nominated Emerson Drive, CCM chart-toppers Casting Crowns, and the critically acclaimed Derek Webb to name a few.
Kevin has performed, sometimes armed only with a guitar, with hip hop, bluegrass, and hard rock acts throughout the northeast. In fact, strip away the over-driven guitars, the pulse rattling rhythm section, the noises and sonic textures. Strip them away and at the core of Kevin’s music is a voice and a guitar.
This willingness to strip the performances down to the bare minimum has served to blur the lines between outdated notions of genre.
His first two albums -Songs From Two Towns Over and Songs From A Broken Planet respectively, featured fuzzed out, guitar romps, (“Blues for Zatoichi” “God Don’t Need Another Rock Star”) delicate ballads, (“Aurea’s Prayer” “Right By You”) and sing along favorites (“6 Finger Blues,” “Mama Don’t.”)
His third release Wither. Fade. Remain.- a concept album meditating on death, life, brokenness, and restoration was far more personal, more urgent, and more experimental than anything he has ever done.
The album’s opener “Jesus Come and Rescue Me” starts with a whisper quiet prayer and erupts into an aching, anthemic cry. Other songs such as “Blessed are the Weak,” “I’m Not Afraid,” and “Don’t Let Your Heart Be Troubled” feature plaintive front and center vocals underscored by a current of rich sonic textures.
Kevin is currently putting the finishing touches on two full length albums: The Escapist and Wolves (both slated for Fall 2010). Both albums will continue to fuse storytelling, vintage tones and colors, and more.
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