Michael Waid is truly a working musician.
While James Taylor famously sang of being a handyman, Michael Waid is one. “I can build or fix just about anything,” he says without a hint of bragging, but you pick up on a sense of pride when he says it. You can hear that same sense of a craftsman’s pride in his songwriting.
Waid’s way with words makes clear he not only relates to the working people of this world, but has been there alongside them, both sleeves rolled up and struggling to make ends meet, carrying on through it all with hope for better days.
“I’ve done a lot things to keep afloat, but I always saw work-work just as a way to be able to keep playing and writing music.” Play-work, as he calls it.
That play-work resulted in Waid’s first album. “I’ve Been Around” charting 39 nationally on Americana radio.
His second album, “The Door Is Wide Open,” was ranked 69 of the best albums of 2014 on the Roots/Americana format. “One slot ahead of John Hiatt.” Waid chuckles.
He’s opened for Jerry Jeff Walker, Ruthie Foster, Gary P. Nunn, Charlie Robison, Guy Forsyth, Shelley King, Carolyn Wonderland and Ordinary Elephant.
He’s traded slide guitar licks with Ray Wylie Hubbard live on KNBT radio.
He’s been a Kerrville Folk Festival regional finalist twice, a Corpus Christi Songwriter Contest winner, and a Songwriter Serenade Contest winner 2014 and 2015.
Now Waid is ready to put another notch on his musical handyman’s tool belt with the fall release of “Grey is Just Another Color,” his strongest testament yet to a remarkably resilient faith that things could get better.
Waid’s lyrical life philosophy is most evident in his song “When Things Get Better,” which expertly fuses positive charged optimism with the continual need to stay grounded in real world concerns. Waid imagines the tropical vacation he’ll enjoy on that far-off day his song title promises even as he ponders the need for a second job that could offer honest-to-God financial breathing room.
The unapologetically sobering confessional “Jesus Ain’t No Friend of Mine” finds the Alamo City-bred Waid in a voice that brings to mind that Rodney Crowell fella from a bit farther east-casting false hope aside along with the angels who have failed to deliver. It’s a powerful, haunting manifesto that speaks to believers and agnostics alike, and those who’ve fallen off the path they thought would always carry them forward.
This album musical style stretches from folk rock to latin vibes. Jazz to acoustic blues. Contemporary folk to pseudo-rag. With a tinge of country seasoning here and there. There's even an Irish jig instrumental.
The opening title track is reprised as the album closes, with Philip Glass-ish piano notes evoking that famous rainbow of Dorothy’s as Waid’s wistful, wishful voice drifts off into the sunset with the words “…soon this storm will pass with all of its’ thunder, the sky will turn to blue.”
Recorded at Cherry Ridge Studios in Floresville, Texas, “Grey” finds Waid ably joined by Michael Madison on drums and congas, Kevin Anthony Lewis on fretless bass and lead electric guitar, Grey LeGere on drums, Bill King on tenor sax and clarinet, Anthony Bazzani on piano and John Stuart on cello. Tommy Detamore engineered and mastered the recording and contributed steel guitar. Waid plays finger-style acoustic, slide guitar and hand percussion.
It is said that there are two important days in our lives: the day we’re born, and the day we learn why we’re here. Michael discovered his “why,” his true calling years ago.
All along he’s been working, living life, and writing songs about both.
Those songs are built to last.