Michael Lee Firkins: rain in the tunnel

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News:
26-02-2008:
Michael Lee Firkins is on MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/michaelleefirkins

29-10-2007:
A really big thank you to top player and friend Jason Macedo for letting me know about this new release which is available from guitar9 and other good music outlets

"The great webzine Metal Temple writes about Michael Lee Firkins' 2007 Blacklight Sonatas CD, "It's an instrumental album with a lot of blues guitar and a cover of Ram Jam's "Black Betty", with Michael Lee Firkins testing his vocal abilities once more. This is the only dark moment in Blacklight Sonatas that mainly has some nice blues vibe, a lot of good guitar moments and nice mixing work in the studio. The stereo panning of the guitars is a little bit hard, with two guitars shredding at the same time at your left and right speaker with the rhythm section in the middle. The best moment is the album's title track; a sad guitar is bleeding with a bottleneck sliding to a classical music scale and a broken hearted almost mournful melody with a glimpse of light inside. A nice compilation of blues, country riffs and solos and with a nice selection of musicians that wade in, like Thomas Pridgen, Chuck Leavell, Michael Bland and more, Blacklight Sonatas is the perfect listening exercise for guitarists that want to play the music that Michael Lee Firkins knows very well."


Blacklight Sonatas



I've got my copy on order... have you?


03-09-2007:
Michael Lee Firkins - Special gig live


27-08-2007:
A live video of Howling Iguanas with Michael Lee Firkins live 1994

howling iguanas 1994


Also another live Michael Lee Firkins - Special gig live

Hula hoops Live


14-05-2007:
Some more cool live video from Michael Lee Firkins, proving once again what an amazing talent Michael is!

Cactus Cruz Live



06-05-2007:
deja blues


26-04-2007:
Saturday Night Live


25-04-2007:
Some really great Michael Lee Firkins live video on YouTube:

Runaway Train Live


Laughing Stacks Live


03-12-2006:
Intro of the Hot Licks video of Michael Lee Firkins


04-10-2006:
A big thanks to InstrumentalCase for finding this great video and power tab for an amazing work of art and brilliant playing fr om Michael Lee Firkins, who captures the spirit of Jason Becker at his best.

end of the beginning


plus the "one of the most awesome and complex tabs I've ever seen": powertab

05-09-2006:
Mastering Lead Guitar


Background:
Michael Lee Firkins was born in Omaha, Nebraska in 1967. He remains one of my favourite players and I was lucky enough to see him in London following the release of his self-titled debut album. Micael had musical parents and he started playing acoustic guitar at the young age of eight. Mostly self taught, his early influences include Lynyrd Skynyrd, Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, and Black Sabbath.

He started playing electic guitar in 1979. In 1985 Michae started touring with country cover bands. His playing then embraced players like: Jerry Reed, Chet Atkins, Albert Lee, and Danny Gatton.

He recorded a 5 song demo of instrumental guitar tunes and sent it to Shrapnel Record's, Mike Varney whowho signed Firkins immediately. His first release sold more than 100,000 copies and won him the best new talent in Guitar Player magazine.

He has since released a number of other CD's visit his web site to find out more or visit a fan web site where you can see his discography and buy his CD's.