Mike Bowman - Blazin' Train (2016)

Mike Bowman isn't your average singing guitar player. A very dynamic singer, he will belt it out like Eddie Vedder and serenade like John Mayer. He likes to keep things interesting by using different techniques on his guitar, and changing up musical styles from rock, blues and jazz. On the year of 1981, Mike was born in the hometown of Tom Petty's, Gainesville, Florida. Having begun paino lessons of the Suzuki method from age 4, he developed his skills and a unique ear from an early age. At 12 he discovered guitar and never looked back. Channeling angst through fast riffs distorted power chords, you would hear Mike recreating choice passages from Metallica, Megadeth and Rage Against the Machine as loudly as possible. As his fingers and musical senses evolved in his late teens, he became seriously influenced by the guitar playing of Stevie Ray Vaughan and Jimi Hendrix and could be seen playing at local blues jams around town. Lyrical and harmonic influences came from arists like Tom Petty, the Eagles, Dave Matthews and Fleetwood Mac. At 19, Mike joined the Air Force and spent 4 years stationed in Georgia, including two deployments overseas in support of the war efforts in Iraq.
After his service in the Air Force ended in 2004, Mike spent a year back in his hometown and went to college. Having focused 100% guitar playing in the years before, it was during this time he decided to try singing, at the behest of his karaoke-addicted Mom. As the 'singing-guitar-player' side of Mike was just being born, he decided to move to California, emboldened by a decent job offer as Electronics Technician working for a private Army contractor. During the next several years, he was primarily focused on his career in the electronics and telecommunications field, landing a lucrative position at Qualcomm. Mike slowly became discontent with his 9-5 life in a less than artistic field, and in 2010 made a decision to seriously persue his professional musical apsirations. Mike had never attempted songwriting before then. After untold growing pains, Mike wrote, self-recorded and self-released his first EP “Columbus Day” in his home studio. He can be heard performing those and a unique but popular repertoire of covers around San Diego. Mike plans is currently working on a full-length and full-production album.