“His own voice; his own path... passionate, poetic...” —The Woodstock Times, NY

With soaring vocals and powerful-yet-delicate guitarwork, Michael Bassett combines the raw catharsis of modern indie, the world-wise acoustic lilt of classic folk and the virtuosity of progressive rock on his Eschatone debut, puddleskinwaving, and his wonderful sophomore release, Soft Verges. A native of Troy, New York, Michael was, as the Albany, NY Times Union proclaimed, one of the region’s “most promising and adventurous singer-songwriters”... until he packed up and moved to England to study his craft and compose in a more experimental, abstract sound-sculptural style.

But you can’t keep great songs down, and Michael returned to his stripped-down roots with Soft Verges, tracking most of the album live in one intense session at legendary Chicago studio Electrical Audio. The album proves that Michael’s appeal transcends generational lines: he writes some of the most intense, challenging and grownup acoustic music around, yet his dazzling, gymnastic voice and guitar chops are the envy of emo kids everywhere.

Michael is now supporting Soft Verges live in Europe, having just completed his second American tour. On his first US jaunt, in October 2006, Michael criss-crossed the States for a month (while puddleskinwaving rocked the rotations of over 130 non-commercial radio stations nationwide)—just Mike, his guitar, a car and the open road. It wasn’t an unfamiliar experience for a guy who, at the age of 17, found himself living on the streets and, eventually, in his car. Michael learned how to play guitar on loaner instruments, and managed to get good enough to handle lead in local bands without actually owning an axe.

“When I first started gigging, I borrowed guitars from other bands on the bill,” Michael laughs. “The folks who came out regularly thought I owned the biggest collection of guitars in the world!”

It was Michael’s grandmother who granted him the angelic-sounding Taylor acoustic on which he wrote puddleskinwaving and Soft Verges. “All my life, the elders in my family discouraged me from pursuing music. At some point my brother let my grandmother listen to a tape of a band I was recording with. She must have been taken by it. My grandmother made mittens and got my aunt to sell them at flea markets... she saved up the money to help me buy the guitar I have today. I carry a pair of the mittens in the guitar case wherever it goes.”

In recent years, that guitar—and the mittens—have accompanied Michael all over the UK and Netherlands as he’s performed and collaborated with some of Europe’s finest avant-garde artists, including Maja Bugge, Jean Abreu and Liu Ding. The one-time street kid is now a noted college lecturer and experimental composer, and halfway to his PhD. And these two powerful albums map his journey.


Michael Bassett links