Mike Younger – Tennessee Bluesman

Akin to the socially relevant folk, blues, and country artists who inspired him, Nashville singer / songwriter Mike Younger is an artist whose words and melodies reflect the human condition in the here and now. Produced by Jim Dickinson, the rhythm track for his latest single, “Lord of the Fleas,” was originally cut in January 2001. Featuring Muscle Shoals legends David Hood (bass) and Spooner Oldham (keyboards), Luther Dickenson (North Mississippi All Stars) along with founding member of Rock and Roll Hall of Famers The Band – Levon Helm on drums – the track never saw the light of day. The record company folded, the tapes were lost in a legal battle, and the work was left in the archives. Until now. Younger took this stellar performance and recast the lyrics to depict the “carnivalesque” nature of present day political and social strife. The promotional video emerges as an American news reel – illuminating the great contradiction of the modern patriot. Lord of the Fleas is the first single and video to be released from Younger’s highly-anticipated long-player – titled Burning the Big Top Down, slated for release in 2021.

In 2001, Jim Dickinson started producing Mike’s second album, which never saw the light of day, as the record label collapsed before the record was completed. The original Memphis sessions featured rock legends Levon Helm on drums, Spooner Oldham on keyboard and organ, David Hood on bass, Jim Dickinson on piano, and his son Luther Dickinson on electric guitar. The tapes from that session fell into legal limbo and were lost for almost two decades. Now recovered, Burning The Bigtop Down was released August 27th 2021.

After the loss of the Memphis sessions and his record deal, Mike left Tennessee, returning to New York City to assemble a band and subsequently release 2005’s Every Stone You Throw, his first independent effort, which carried some of the songs from the lost record. From 2003-2007, he worked the NYC club scene with his band and as a solo performer.  In 2007, he returned to Nashville and began laying the groundwork for 2009’s Hustled By Squares, followed by a U.S. tour in the Midwest, mid-Atlantic, mid-South, and northeast regions, where his radio supporters and fans encouraged him to keep the hope alive.

During the next few years, he developed a friendship with neighbor and guitar legend Bob Britt (Leon Russell, Delbert McClinton, John Fogerty, Bob Dylan). Bob would end up producing 2016’s Little Folks Like You And Me. Mike jumped back into regional touring to promote his work and to support various environmental causes, including the standoff at Standing Rock, the Flint Water Crisis, and his own community, all of which were facing environmental degradation by irresponsible corporate actors and their enablers in public office. Little Folks Like You And Me featured the song “Poisoned Rivers“ which became a rallying cry for local community resistance to unwanted fossil fuel development in Middle Tennessee. The community’s position was strengthened by the 2015 Field Study of Gas Pipeline Safety in Tennessee, which included Mike’s extensive photo-documentation of corroded and poorly maintained interstate gas pipeline infrastructure and haphazard operating conditions across Tennessee.

In 2017, Mike was able to reclaim the recordings he made in Memphis in 2001 and began the long process of completing the production of Burning The Bigtop Down and cleaning up unresolved issues surrounding the record.