Biography

Contact information:

Mike Anderson Productions
206 Meadow LN
Madisonville, TN 37354

gmikeanderson@aim.com
mikeandersonproductions.com
423-807-0561

From an early age I just couldn't seem to stick with one instrument, I liked them all. You'll see what I mean a little later on. So at the tender age of 9 I started playing drums in my first rock and roll band, "The Spyders". The bandleader owned the drums (he couldn't find a drummer who actually owned a set back then) so I auditioned with the band on his drums and got the job. Later on I would buy the drums and pay the bandleader back for them at $5.00 a whack from gigs we played. We made $5.00 a gig so if you do the math, it took a while to pay that $85 set of drums off. But eventually they were all mine! I did a New Years Eve gig with another band at the Sweetwater VFW and was still 9 years old at the time. I thought this band was really cool, because we had a trumpet player and keyboard. I told my Mom we were playing the National Guard Armory. She thought it was really strange when I got home at 2 am and had $50 in my pocket from playing music. She didn't find out where I actually played until much later, but by then she wasn't upset with me. I guess it really is easier sometimes to ask for forgiveness than permission. I was glad she wasn't upset, that $50 took a huge chunk out of my drumset indebtedness.

Then it happened. My Dad brought in a Sears nylon string guitar and it was love at first sight. Drums were on the backburner. I loved that old guitar, even though the neck was like, real wide and it had these funny nylon strings on it, which you couldn't buy replacements for anywhere in town. All you could buy were Black Diamond steel guitar strings at the drug store and they would eventually warp the neck. I made a capo for it out of a kitchen case knife and a bunch of rubber bands, worked pretty good but it wasn't very practical but It didn't matter I had a guitar and I was in love. I started learning songs like, "Honky Tonk" and "Johnny B. Goode" just to name a few but I needed someone to play the other guitar part that I was used to hearing with "The Spyders". Paid a visit to my longtime friend John "Booworm" Byrum and "The Surfers" were born with the addition of Bobby Moser on bass and Jim Samples on drums. I was all of thirteen at the time.

Just before helping to form "The Surfers" I landed a weekend job at the local radio station WKYZ am 1250 in Madisonville at age 12. In those days you had to pass a written exam and get an FCC license to talk on the radio (can you believe that?). I remember the FCC office in Atlanta told me it didn't matter how young you were, just so long as you could pass the test. I did and I was on the air! Mostly on Saturday afternoons and all day on Sunday I was in the control room spinning stacks of wax or whatever we called it back then. The most memorable thing I can remember from my early days in radio was a Sunday morning while the local church broadcast was on-the-air. I went into the next studio and sat down at the piano to play a little "Jerry Lee Lewis" and didn't realize that I had inadvertently opened a mike in that studio. I found out soon enough, as someone from the church called and wanted to know "who the idiot was" playing the piano over the preacher. Man, how embarrassing! Thought they would fire me, or the Chairman of the FCC in Washington D.C. would personally come to Madisonville and kick my rear end. I thought my radio career was over, but it was just beginning.

After "The Surfers" went in different directions after high school graduations I paid a visit to some lifelong friends in Vonore and teamed up with "Boggs Avenue" another local band and spent time playing gigs in East Tennessee while working for WGAP radio in Maryville TN as an announcer/Program Director.

Then it was off for a stint in the Air Force in beautiful Honolulu, HI. Stayed there almost 4 years and played a ton of music (while not on duty of course.) I got a job at night as an announcer at KAHU am/KULA fm at the time Hawaii's only country music stations. I also joined a local band Don Shane and The Countryaires as a singer/guitar player a group which was the first country band at the time to play a major hotel on Waikiki Beach. We also played the military circuit and were a backup band for up and coming country stars who came to the island and some of the classic stars as well. I remember playing backup for Merle Travis (I remember he let me play his guitar), Johnny Carver, Stan Hitchcock, Kitty Wells, Kenni Huskey, Moe Bandy and Tex Williams just to name a few. An artist would get to the island and we would have maybe an afternoon or sometimes an hour to work with them before playing backup for them that very night. Could be a little nervewracking to say the least. I remember a singer who sat in with us many times at gigs. He was in the Army at Schofield Barracks, noneother than Country Music Legend George Strait.

After leaving active duty it was back to WGAP in Maryville, TN and singing, playing guitar and sometimes pedal steel (I picked up another love in Hawaii) with"Boggs Avenue" which would later be renamed "Notchy Creek". The band shared the stage with Larry Gatlin and the Gatlin Brothers Band, T.G. Sheppard, and Charlie McCoy to name a few. While with "Notchy Creek" we recorded a song I had written "The Lovin' Begins and The Hurtin' Ends" at Jack Clement Studio which later became Sound Emporium in Nashville. The engineer there was the legendary Jim Williamson. Jim invited me back to record some songs that he thought fit my voice. I recorded "Today May Be The Day" and "Sharon" which were released on Comstock records. I had a great time recording these songs. It was an experience I will never forget as the recordings featured the "Shelly Kurland Strings", Weldon Myrick on steel , The Nashville Singers on backup and other top Nashville muscians.

I have been blessed to work with a lot of fine musicians, singers and songwriters in my lifetime. I would certainly like to mention all of them here, but I would soon run out of web pages. I would just like to thank all of them for enriching my life with their talents.

The most important day of my life was the day I accepted Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior. That happened when I was nine years old, at an old time revival meeting and I still remember it like it was yesterday. I have always been involved in the music ministry at church as a choir member/soloist or in a music group at church. I served as the Minister of Music at Walnut Grove Baptist Church in Vonore for four years.



At present I am playing guitar/singing with the Praise Band at First Baptist Church in Madisonville where my wife Jane and I are members. Most recently I have been led by the Lord to take my music ministry to a whole new level by starting the group "Mountainview Rambers" to accompany me on live dates. I am continuing to pray that God would increase my territory. Please pray for my ministry that I will continue to see hearts touched and lives changed by sharing the love of Christ Jesus through music.

Blessings,
Mike