MIKE LANGLEY—outline of a life in music
--Mike started playing guitar at the age of 9, taught by his dad, Jack Langley (2005 recipient of the Danny Matousek Lifetime Achievement Award
and Inductee into The Iowa Rock and Roll Hall of Fame).
Mom Sheila played piano and sang harmony with the family at home;
Mike's younger brother Jon followed the calling too, and became a singer, guitarist, bassist, songwriter, painter, photographer, graphic artist—a quintessential artist of rare mastery and beauty.
--Mike played his first gig at the age of 10 in a dirt-floor,
hole-in-the-wall joint in the Sioux City Stockyards.
--Through junior high and high school Mike played guitar and sang with Jack at a multitude of clubs from Sioux City to Nashville and back.
--Mike studied Linguistics, French and German at Morningside College from 1981-85, making friends with Austrian musicians; he made several trips across the pond before graduating Summa Cum Laude and making the move to Europe in '85.
--Mike lived and toured in Austria, Hungary, Italy, Germany,
France and the UK from '85-'97, developing a free-lance career
that ranged from performing on cobblestone streets to playing at international jazz and folk festivals; appearing in nightclubs to writing and recording movie soundtracks; working as a singer, instrumentalist and arranger in studios
to touring solo and with rock, folk and avant-garde groups.
--Toured in Austria, Germany and Czechoslovakia and recorded
"European Reunion Tour" with Jack in 1990.
--Toured the US solo from New York City to San Francisco in '93.
--Mike hooked up with brother Jon in Europe in early 90's to form The Langley Brothers Band, recording "Upstairs In The Basement" in Vienna, Austria and touring Normandy, Brittany and the UK (including a lengthy stint as House Band with Rudi Strauss at the legendary Rock Garden club in London)
before returning to the US in '97.
--Mike formed independent record label, Orange Carpet Music in ’97, and played with Jon in The Langley Brothers Band, and with Jack and Jon as The Langleys.
-- Jon Langley passed away December 30, 1999; Mike has released Langley Brothers Archives records every Christmas in Jon's memory.
--Mike's prolific output of original music and poetry on records since returning to the US:
"Prehumous", "Langley Brothers Band", "Gnu Ewe", "Faves",
"Know What? Chicken Butt", "Westside Mikey & Westside Bobo: N. A. Blur", the "Dark Ones" series, "'67 Quarter", “Cheers, Love”, "Songs From The Future", "Sundry Plunder From The Wreck Of The Emdee VIII", "History: A Thing Of The Past?", "For Real", "Milky Way Home", "Langley House (vols. 1 & 2)", "Galaxy Chanty", "Ghost Songs (vols. 1 & 2)", "December 2017 Collected Mixes", “Nightmerica: To Hell with Entropy”, "It Came From Inner Space"...
as well as 5 records with Jack: "Portraits", "Looking Back", "Harleys In Heaven", "Reflections" and "Guitar Man"--which won the 2010 National Traditional Music Association's Songwriter Album of the Year Award.
--Mike and Jack were featured performing live on South Dakota Public Broadcasting’s television music showcase “No Cover No Minimum” in 2008, and in a video by Melissa Lanzourakis featuring Jack’s song, “The Mighty Muddy Mo” in 2011.
--Mike played bass guitar on occasion with longtime friends Jain Jeffer (Mindy Winchester, Ray McAvoy, Buckley Mills and the late Jerry Kessler, who passed away in June of 2011) and Wavelength (Jerry Kessler, Charlie Hoberg and Pat Miller).
--Mike continues to run Orange Carpet Music's independent record label R & G Records and recording studio The Guitarsenal, teaches guitar at Western Iowa Tech and Morningside College, and performs live either solo or with fellow music veterans Bob Larson, Jamie Bowers, and Walt Peterson in The Groovediggers, and with dad Jack and son Jonas as The Langleys.
Mike was inducted into the Iowa Rock and Roll Music Association's Hall of Fame in September 2012.
--In recent years Mike has performed on tour in Ireland with life partner Mary Kay Weir, and has been a regular guest on radio programs from Ireland, the UK, Germany, Canada and the USA.
Hi, I'm Mike Langley from Sioux City, Iowa USA and I’ve been a regular guest on David Dee Moore's The Acoustic Yard Radio Show out of Westport, Ireland broadcast on Blues and Roots Radio, on Christian’s Cosmic Corner on Mark Skin Radio out of Lowell, Mass., Roger Williams’s A World of Difference out of the UK on Blues and Roots, Onkel Willy’s Cafe on taunus-blitz.de out of Cologne, Germany, as well as Les Ray’s Strummers & Dreamers on Cambridge 105 Radio in the UK; Colin Kennedy and Jim Duffy’s The Folk Furnace on TCR FM in Tramore, Ireland; Steve Oliver’s TheSundayAlternative, Gary Hazlehurst’s show on Nova FM and Trevor Krueger’s Folk Show out of the UK, as well as KWIT Public Radio in Sioux City, Iowa and Louis Garcia’s Celtic Connection on WCUW in Worcester, MA.
Thanks very much for your time!
Thanks for your interest in Mike Langley Music.
You're welcome to check out my Facebook pages:
Mike Langley Music, R & G Records, Mikeydelic, New World Hors-D’Oeuvres, Grüvediggerz4, The Langleys, Professor Mikey, Jon Langley Memorial Jam...
my 30-song album “Mike Langley Collection 2018”
on Spotify, iTunes, Apple Music, Google Play, YouTube Red, Deezer...
as well as these pages with audio and video:
soundcloud.com/WestsideMikeyMikeLangley
https://www.reverbnation.com/mikelangley
YouTube
home:
https://www.youtube.com/user/jonnylingusghost/featured
playlists:
https://www.youtube.com/user/jonnylingusghost/playlists
including: YouTube/MikeLangleyMusicVideos
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjcKYJu2UMM&list=PL-qkAURBUg6--4lr6oZHnqfbtljDKIGxR
and my website www.mikelangley.com for bio and other info.
Thanks, and all the best,
Mike
