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Michael Burks was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on July 30, 1957 with blues in his blood, a guitar in his hand and a powerful blue-collar work ethic in his soul. His grandfather was a Delta blues man from Camden, Arkansas and his grandmother sang gospel. His father, a steel mill worker who played bass guitar in local blues clubs at night, used music to give his sons some direction in life. “He didn’t have to worry if we were out in the streets getting’ into trouble, you know,” says Burks. “He knew we were in the back room, beatin’ on the drums and guitars.”
Burks was introduced to a child-sized guitar when he was two. “It was a Roy Rogers/Dale Evans Special,” he recalls fondly. “Had horses, ponies, ropes and everything painted on it.” Financial incentive and music lessons merged when Burks was five, his father offering him a dollar if he learned a song from one of his 45s by the time that he returned home from work.
Injured in an industrial accident in the early 1970s, Burks’ father relocated the family to Camden and opened a 300-seat juke joint, the fancifully named Bradley Ferry Country Club. By this time, Burks was a proficient player capable of leading the house band.
When the club closed in the mid 1980s, Burks was forced to take a day job with missile maker Lockheed-Martin where he worked for thirteen years as a mechanical technician. Fortunately, his four ten-hour shifts left long weekends open to play clubs and expand his range to regional festivals.
Burks’ recording career began in 1997 with the self-produced From the Inside Out. However, it wasn’t until his trio of excellent releases for Alligator Records beginning in 2001 that the press reviews began to catch up with the quality of his output. Blues Revue praised Burks’ “blazing, explosive solos” and “driving crossover blues-rock executed with dexterity and panache.” The Chicago Sun-Times went further proclaiming his “phenomenal firepower” and declaring that, “There’s no more exciting young guitarist in the blues.” Burks has also been the recipient of several Blues Music Award nominations including the top-tier Contemporary Male Blues Artist in 2009.
But fans will always be the ultimate judges. Recognizing in Burks the sincerity that they crave in a performer, they’ve latched onto him with a badger’s tenacity. “Blues is life experiences,” he states. “Those things that one goes through in life, it’s the truth, it’s what you’ve been through, what you’ve lived and that’s what I play, you know. The music it comes from my heart and my mind.”
Always appreciative of his audience Burks never dabbles in half measures. Playing every show as if it was his last he brings them to their feet with feral intensity, incendiary soloing, wicked string bending, brawny, toe-curling tone and smouldering baritone vocals.
Looking to the future, Burks confides, “I hope to be playin’ this music for a long time, ‘cause I love the blues. I wouldn’t give it up for nothing in this world.” www.michaelburks.com
Ken Wright
