Music Drifts Along this River

By Mike Jurgensen

(audio version requires RealAudio G2)

Biography:

Michael Jurgensen has lived in the Tampa Bay area since 1968, when he moved from his native Chapel Hill, NC. Mike began playing the guitar when he was seven years old, but it was not until 1992 that he began performing in public seriously. It was then that he discovered the Iron Horse coffee house in Tarpon Springs, where he began playing open mics. Over the next two years he branched out to do open mics and feature sets at other Tampa Bay area coffee houses and restauraunts, as well as regularly emceeing the Iron Horse open mics. He has also played at several local fairs and festivals, and he has been the featured artist a number of times on various live radio shows on WMNF in Tampa. Although Mike had written several songs prior to 1992, he has only been writing seriously since 1992. Mike was a finalist in the 1994 and 1996 South Florida Folk Festival song-writing competitions, and he won the Best New Florida Song award at the 1998 Will McLean Festival.

In April of 1994 Mike joined the well-known Florida acoustic group, Myriad, which had been together for about 4 years at the time. Together with Myriad, Mike has played concerts at coffee houses, radio shows, benefit concerts, and festivals around the state. Myriad has performed at the Florida Folk Festival, the Will McLean and Gamble Rogers Festivals, the South Florida Folk Festival, and the Suwannee Spring Fest, to name a few. Myriad has produced 4 tapes- one a studio tape produced before he joined the group, a live tape recorded at the Iron Horse in 1995, and two subsequent studio tapes, "Song Circle" and "New Strings," both of which were released in 1997. "New Strings" is also available on CD. Several of Mike's songs are featured on the Myriad recordings. Mike also expects to produce a solo recording project in the near future.

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Documentary website designed by Jason Shindler

More information on Mike's group "Myriad" is available at their website. Mike can also be reached by mail: 6985 Coronet Dr. / New Port Richey, Fl 34655