MICHAEL MERENDA
Michael Merenda is a wordsmith, vocalist and guitarist who has long recognized that a good song has the ability to improve the world. On both an intensely personal and universal level Merenda’s work strives to entertain as well as illuminate. His early fascination with the socially conscious writings of Bob Marley and Bob Dylan met head-on with the arrival of young, smart, outspoken artists such as Ani Difranco and Dan Bern, furthering the young writer’s blossoming ideology that politics need not be polarizing and dry, but alive, vibrant and inspiring.
Merenda’s inventive approach to songmaking has been described as “zen.” He’s not one to premeditate a song or to fish stories out of newspapers, but rather he hoists his antenna and dials in frequencies already alive inside himself and the atmosphere. As a result, there are plenty of catchy hooks and memorable lines, but they come at you like approaching headlights on a dark, two-lane highway.
His travels with internationally acclaimed string-band, The Mammals, have made Merenda exceedingly comfortable on stage. His signature breathy voice has hints of Nick Drake and Paul Simon and in performance this soft delivery works like a magnet. Familiar yet enigmatic, Michael Merenda is a talent to watch in this songwriting renaissance of the 21st century.
MIKE AND RUTHY
Woodstock, New York’s Mike + Ruthy have been harmonizing for the past ten years. Founding members of “post-apocalyptic-stringband” The Mammals, as a duo Mike + Ruthy have refined their sound down to the the very core of acoustic American music, demonstrating an uncommon ability to create songs as lyrically sophisticated as Bob Dylan or Leonard Cohen and as harmonically beautiful as Gillian Welch & David Rawlings or Simon & Garfunkel. With an arsenal of fiddle, banjo, guitar, ukulele and their hallmark harmony singing, a Mike + Ruthy concert is overstuffed with soulful songs and stories and a timeless sound that is spellbinding and pure.
As the daughter of fiddle legend, Jay Ungar, and country singer Lyndon Lee Hardy, Ruthy is no stranger to roots music and harmony singing. Despite her innate knowledge of American folk and country music, Ruthy opted to steer clear of the musician’s life and in 1997 moved to New York City to pursue a career in the theatre.
It was in New York that Ruthy was introduced to Michael Merenda, an aspiring playwright and songwriter from New Hampshire who himself had just recently arrived in the big apple to test his mettle.
With this meeting Ruthy’s interest in music was stoked, with Mike becoming entranced by the deep well of folk music from which Ruthy’s talent poured: the duo began collaborating immediately.
A romantic relationship began not long after the musical partnership was sparked and in 2000 the couple resettled just outside of Northampton, MA where they met Tao Rodriguez-Seeger (grandson of the legendary folk singer Pete Seeger) and soon formed the "subversive, acoustic, stringband" The Mammals.
The Mammals toured the world for 7 years including trips to Australia, Denmark, and Canada and even a six month stint opening for and backing up the great Arlo Guthrie during his 40th Anniversary of Alice's Restaurant tour which culminated at New York's Carnegie Hall.
With the birth of their son, Will, in 2008, Mike + Ruthy, announced a departure from The Mammals to focus on their growing family. During this time the couple rediscovered their joy of playing together as a duo and over the following three years produced three sparkling albums including "The Honeymoon Agenda" (2008), “Waltz of the Chickadee" (2009), and 2010's critically acclaimed "Million to One" all on their own independent record label, Humble Abode Music, based just outside of Woodstock, NY.
::: Praise for Mike + Ruthy :::
"Mike + Ruthy’s musicianship bears the mark of veteran brilliance" - Chronogram
“Some of the best songwriting of their generation” - High Times
“Seemingly descended not just from one famous folkie, but the entire folk tradition itself.”
- Willamette Week
“Breathy, rich Americana . . . a beguiling new album”- Time Out New York
“While many folk-rock and Americana bands simply copy their influences,
Mike + Ruthy have succeeded in mixing the new with the old seamlessly . . .
Million to One breathes a love and respect for folk music with each track.”
- Performer Magazine
"While still 'roots' music, Mike & Ruthy's Million to One reveals . . . a late '50s and ‘60s
folk-rock style that had such a huge influence on everything that followed" - Vintage Guitar
"Replete with banjo, fiddle and pedal steel, Ungar and Merenda showcase a natural chemistry shifting between catchy pop tunes, bluesy rock numbers, lush soul songs and hushed folk ballads. “Million to One is a milestone achievement for the New York-based duo, reflecting remarkably eclectic songwriting." The Wire
"In a perfect world, this mildly Appalachian-tinged pop would be the mainstream of pop radio."
-Berkshire Eagle
“Gorgeous acoustic music which exceeds a genre such as folk or singer-songwriter. Two perfectly connected musicians who belong to the absolute top.” - Moors Magazine
"Million to One features upbeat and dreamy folk-pop tunes based in roots music
but also owing a debt to The Beatles, Bob Dylan, and Yo La Tengo."
-Berkshire Living
"Like the Rolling Stones on their country side trips" - AllMusic.com
"Great, Gorgeous - Mike + Ruthy successfully bring folk music to a new place
while holding on to the timeless traditions of the genre, namely, the telling of a story."
-Kingston Freeman
"Million to One is overstuffed with timelessly catchy and beautifully melodic pearls" - Chronogram
"One rockin', blissful voice. A musical duo not to be missed!" - The Valley Voice
"An infectious new folk rock album." -Boston Globe
THE STORY OF MIKE
Michael Merenda grew up in the small University town of Durham, NH. He spent his youth playing drums and guitar in several Northeastern rock/punk/reggae outfits before heading to NYC after graduating with a creative writing degree from Bowdoin College in Maine.
In New York Mike found himself at home at the Lower East Side’s Sidewalk Cafe, home of the burgeoning “anti-folk” scene. It was while living in New York that Mike met fiddler/singer Ruth Ungar who instantly began harmonizing to Merenda’s unique, poetic, outspoken songs and introduced the young songwriter to traditional folk music.
After a year spent performing together in New York the two left the high rents of the city for Western Massachusetts where Mike recorded his first album, TRAPPED IN THE VALLEY. Produced by Jose Ayerve (Spouse), “Trapped” unmistakably documents Merenda’s free-form style of writing and propensity towards sonic experimentation interlocking with the more traditional sounds and rhythms he had recently began exploring.
Under Ungar’s influence, Mike picked up old-time banjo and began working at the Fretted Instrument Workshop in Amherst, MA. At Fretted Mike was introduced to Tao Rodriguez-Seeger (Grandson of banjo-virtuoso, Pete Seeger) and, before he knew it, Mike was touring the US and Canada with Rodriguez-Seeger and Ungar under the name The Mammals.
Traditional music, which started out as a fascinating dichotomy to the modern, folk-ish songs Merenda had been intuitively writing, became a main focus. Soon The Mammals were headlining major American folk festivals and were being hired to teach banjo, fiddle and songwriting techniques at music camps and schools.
It was within The Mammals that Merenda evolved into a topical songwriter in the tradition of Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan. Not one to leave his original vision behind, however, Mike continued to produce solo records of his darker, "vaguely apocalyptic" material.
In 2004, with the help of The Mammals producer Max Feldman, Merenda released ELECTION DAY a “remarkable . . . musically experimental . . . political album”; a wild amalgamation of political folk, freak folk, anti-folk, rock, pop, country, alternative, underground and emo.
Merenda contributed songs to two more Mammals albums (Rock that Babe, Departure) before hitting the studio in January 2006, again with producer Jose Ayerve, to record QUIVER, a collection of twelve stunning, mysterious folk songs which unfold like a series of skilled poems sung to glimmering musical backdrops.
Mike now primarily tours with Ruthy and their young son under the name Mike + Ruthy. http://www.mikeandruthy.com