A Life In Lyrics
Published in Coast Magazine July 2015
Houston singer-songwriter, Mike Stinson
Songs about heartaches and hangovers are par for the course for most honky-tonk flavored songwriters and Houston troubadour, Mike Stinson, in from Virginia by way of Los Angeles since 2010, gives listeners that and a whole lot more in his lyrically rambunctious songs.
An admitted die-hard fan of Bob Dylan, Stinson packs a lot of storytelling inside each of his 3-5 minutes of musical magic. From the bottom of his heart to the bottom of his lunch box, Stinson makes lyrics out of everything from broken records to broken promises without sounding like, well, a broken record.
Relative the number of people who pick up a guitar and write a song, Stinson has experienced the kind of success afforded to very few. In 2006 Dwight Yoakam recorded Stinson’s “Late Great Golden State”, applying a stamp of approval on Stinson’s songwriting and confirming the old-school country direction his music was headed.
“I made three albums going for the classic country music sound. I had sort of an obsession with trying to write a song I thought Willie Nelson would like. I got that out of my system and then explored other areas of songwriting. This last album is more of a roots rock thing,” says Stinson.
Stinson’s latest album, “Hell and Half of Georgia” was released in 2013 and earned high praise from American Songwriter Magazine as well as the Houston Press.
Mike Stinson was born in Virginia and spent most of his youth around the Chesapeake Bay area influenced by the sounds of his two older brother’s record collections that included The Rolling Stones, Tom Petty, Dylan and Hank Williams Jr. and started him on a musical path that continues today.
After moving to L.A. when he was 23, and living there for 18 years, Stinson had created a solid fan base. A few of his of his songs were placed in TV shows such as Cold Case, Mad Men and Weeds and things were looking up when Stinson did something no one would have expected; he packed up and moved to Houston.
“Life is an adventure. I don’t think you’re supposed to stay in one spot. I wanted to shake things up. I grew up in a little town of 1500 people. I’ve always thought, ‘there’s a great big world out there’ and I want to go check it out. Moving around a little, I’m not saying it’s critically necessary, but I think it informed my songwriting.”
Heading in new geographical and musical directions has proven successful for Stinson but when it comes to his songwriting; home still lies in the lyrics.
“The lyric is where it begins and ends for me. I can be very forgiving about the music and production. You can always come up with a decent piece of music to go along with a great lyric whereas you cant always take music you think is cool and come up with good lyrics,” says Stinson.
Stinson has performed in Galveston a few times since moving to Houston, including one night at one of the city’s most respected listening rooms for singer-songwriters, the Old Quarter, with legendary singer-songwriter, Ray Wylie Hubbard.
Mike Stinson and his band will be taking the stage at U.S. Backline’s “Music Night On The Strand” July 11th at 6pm. in Saengerfest Park (2300 Strand) and promises to deliver everything from clever foot-tapping rock & roll number’s like “Late For My Funeral” (currently in rotation on KPFT FM 89.5 in Galveston/90.1 in Houston) to the song that landed on Yoakam’s greatest hits record, “Late Great Golden State”.
Zach Tate is a writer, photographer and musician. Visit www.ZachTate.com for more music profiles and information about Zach Tate.
