SONGWRITER
& PERFORMer
Mike picks a mean banjo and tells stories too strange not to be true. He cut his teeth as a banjo-slinging troubador in the clubs of the New Orleans, before setting out on a twenty year touring career with alt-country duo, Truckstop Honeymoon. Mike has played folk festivals in Australia, punk rock clubs in Florida and shearing sheds in North Wales. His discography includes ten solo albums, ten albums with Truckstop Honeymoon, and over three hundred albums recorded and produced for other artist.
BIOGRAPHY
Mike West started out as the lopsided-fringed frontman of whimsical Manchester indie band, The Man from Delmonte. But in 1993 he emigrated to the US, where he worked the French Quarter bars of New Orleans, singing his entertaining but disarmingly honest songs to unwitting tourists. During this time, Mike released ten solo albums with Louisiana label, Binky Records. He was awarded a Big Easy Entertainment award for "Best Country/Folk Artist" and received several Best of the Beat awards from OffBeat Magazine. It was in New Orleans also that Mike began his career as a record producer, founding The 9th Ward Pickin' Parlor recording studio in the infamous Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans. In 2003 he began a twenty year collaboration with Katie Euliss (aka Katie West), forming the popular alt-country duo, Truckstop Honeymoon. Truckstop Honeymoon toured across three continents and released ten albums. In 2005, hurricane Katrina wiped out Mike and Katie's neighborhood and they relocated to the Mid West music Mecca of Lawrence, Kansas. The duo continued to tour and build a loyal following. Mike reopened his recording studio in Kansas, producing many bluegrass, old tyme and americana artists. Katie and Mike also founded the Lawrence Mardi Gras Parade, which still marches every year. The City of Lawrence awarded them both the prestigious Phoenix Award for Lifetime Contribution to the Arts. In 2019 Mike and family emigrated from Kansas to North Wales. Mike continues to tour with Truckskstop Honeymoon and other artists, whilst also playing solo shows. He runs Our Lady Studio in Borth, Wales and produces songwriters and bands, including many Welsh language artists.
DISCOGRAPHY
2023 A Day in Mersea (solo EP produced by Frank Turner)
2020 Magical Creatures (Truckstop Honeymoon)
2017 Big Things & Little Things (TSH)
2014 The Madness of Happiness (TSH)
2011 Steamboat in a Cornfield (TSH)
2010 Homemade Haircut (TSH)
2008 Great Big Family (TSH)
2007 Diamonds in the Asphalt (TSH)
2005 Delivery Boy (TSH)
2004 Christmas in Ocala (TSH)
2003 Truckstop Honeymoon (TSH)
2019 Sawbalde Waltz (Instrumental album)
2003 The Man Who Could FallBackwards (solo)
2002 New South (solo)
2002 Everything but the Smile (Grizzly)
2001 Oddities and Rarities (solo)
2001 Home (solo)
1999 16 Easy Songs for Drill & Banjo (solo)
1997 Race That Train (solo)
1996 Econoline (Mike West & Myshkin)
1995 Redneck Riviera (solo)
1993 Interstate 10 (solo)
1989 Big Noise (The Man from Delmonte)
1989 My Love is Like a Gift... (TMFD)
1988 E.P. (TMFD)
1988 Will Nobody Save Louise (TMFD)
1987 Water in My Eyes (TMFD)
1987 Drive Drive Drive (TMFD)