Every so often, if you are lucky, you get to cross paths with a genuine “old soul” – someone who is so in touch with who they are, the stories they have to tell, and a connection to nature that is pure and established its instinctive. Michael Shaw is one of those souls; his writing, his inspirations, his life on the land of Montana represent him as much as he represents them. Lucky for music fans, Michael has released his debut album He Rode On, a 10-track release inspired by his time in the wilderness, the people in his life, and the stories resulting.
We recently caught up with Michael to ask about the beautiful yet rugged life he experienced in Montana, how those experiences influenced his album, and more. A writer through and through, his answers are little stories within themselves.
CN: For our readers who may not be familiar with you, can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
MS: I’m a singer songwriter who moved to Nashville to release my debut album “He Rode On.” Before this I was living in Montana and living a wilderness-filled life where I spent a lot of time living in cabins and working with horses deep in the mountains and running whitewater rivers and writing songs and prose. I didn’t own a TV or do social media. But I read a lot of books and played music in bands and had great friends and led a fairly organic adventurous life. A very analog life.
CN: Your time in Western Montana as a horseman and wilderness ranger had to be an incredible experience – to see and soak in the beauty of Mother Nature untouched. Not that any words could describe what you’ve seen correctly – I would imagine it to be like walking around in a painting of different colors and topographies – but what was that like?
MS: It was very much like living in an epic movie or beautiful painting. Living and working inside Glacier National Park as a backcountry ranger was a dream come true. Being surrounded by that level of wildness and natural beauty really spoils you. It raises the bar incredibly high. And there was a level of adventure to my life that is just hard to articulate. I was running wild for so many years. I didn’t own a bed or a piece of furniture until just a few years ago. But I was very rich by way of my experience. Being all alone on horseback fifteen miles into the North Rockies’ wilderness and running into grizzly bears with no one else around for miles. Looking straight into the eyes of grey wolves and being surrounded by a howling pack. Having bears and moose and elk and mountain lion walk through your front yard on a daily basis. Swimming in glacial fed tarns below massive glaciers with a wolverine lurking nearby. Seeing the alpenglow and the moonlight reflecting off the glaciated snow capped peaks. I was flooded by beauty on a daily basis.
CN: They say being in an environment like that can change a person in different ways, perhaps the most important is realizing what’s truly important in life and finding one’s self and strength. In what ways did it change you, if at all?
MS: I was able to carve out a life in Montana that echoed my personal values. I’ve always chosen experience over material things. My personality was forming long before I moved out west but that vast landscape definitely helped bring it into focus. Once I turned 16 or so I never watched TV or paid any attention to pop culture. When I moved out to Montana in my early 20s I didn’t really know anyone there. I lived alone in a little cabin on the river and read Nietzsche, Thoreau, Emerson, Joseph Campbell, Homer, William Blake…I just devoured the works of some of the greatest minds ever. I also dove into religious texts like the Tao Te Ching and Bhagavad Gita and tons of Buddhist literature. I would hike in the wilderness alone with all these noble ideas fermenting in my mind till they formed a great gumbo of personal philosophy. I think the epic nature of Montana perfectly complimented this period of discovery and identity formation. Montana at its best is a place where you can find true freedom and independence. Not freedom in some rhetorical flag-waving sense, but real freedom to live life how you choose, as long as you’re not hurting someone else. Most old school Montanans will stay out of your business, they won’t bother you, but if you need help they’ll be there in a heartbeat.
CN: That time also helped shape your debut album, He Rode On, released on June 3.
MS: I pretty much became a songwriter by accident. It wasn’t until I was 27 that I got my first guitar and started writing songs. I was a committed drummer prior to that. Once I learned a few chords the songs started pouring out of me. I received great feedback on some of my earliest efforts and that helped boost my confidence. It was funny cause it came so easy. Living a life close to the wilderness and far from a place like Nashville resulted in there being zero commercial motivation to my songwriting. It was the exact opposite of someone who might be working for a publishing company on music row. These songs came naturally from the life I was living. I’ve never done a co-write in my life. There’s just so much material that came from living so close to the bone and all the wildness and unpredictable things inherent in that free-wheeling kind of life. I’ve lived in dark drafty skunk-infested hundred year old cabins, I’ve lived in million dollar homes with sprawling acreage, I’ve experienced love and loss countless times, I’ve had incredible highs that were nothing short of religious experiences, and I’ve dealt with crippling grief that made you want to swallow the barrel of a shotgun. It all goes into the music. The isolation and toil of rural western living shaped me in profound ways. Montana is a beautiful muse, but she can be mean as hell. She tried to kill me on several occasions.
CN: Which artists have influenced you both personally and as an artist?
MS: My favorite artist is Thoreau. He was a noble outlaw who spoke truth to power. Most people don’t even begin to scratch the surface of his philosophy. Its trendy these days to write him off in a cheap cavalier manner. Sure, he ate meals with his family in Concord while he was living at Walden Pond. Who gives a shit? He also refused to pay his taxes because he didn’t want to support the Mexican War which was a complete act of aggression. He went to jail over the principle of it and while he was behind bars he wrote “Civil Disobedience” which deeply influenced Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. The guy had balls of solid rock. He was an abolitionist through and through and his essay on John Brown is one of the most passionate and incendiary works ever written. I like disrupters. Rosa Parks is a hero. Nietzsche is a hero. Nietzsche had the courage to break past all the formulas, from Protestantism to patriotism. His philosophy is so daring and courageous. I had a mentor/ teacher in college named Aethelred Eldridge. He was an avant-garde painter/ artist who was a living breathing work of art. He defied all conventions, a true original. He turned me onto the work of William Blake, a true artist’s artist. Musically I like artists like Miles Davis and John Coltrane. They made the music they wanted to make and were constantly evolving. But as a whole I find philosophers much more interesting than musicians.
CN: A big part of who you are is that of a songwriter. Can you take us through your songwriting process?
MS: Most of my songs have been channeled. That was the only way I wrote for the longest time. When I moved to Nashville I worked hard at developing craft, which is a good thing to have. Most songwriters will tell you the only thing you need is a good title. I’ve written lots of songs from a title alone. I get a lot of melodies that spontaneously pop in my head. I try to get them down and then I’ll come back and work on lyrics. The best songs come all at once and you’re just trying to keep up with the flood of ideas pouring into you. It’s like a possession. You’re not in control at that point. You’re overtaken by inspiration. I don’t know where they come from but its like the song existed somewhere and they’re given to you like a gift and you just try to channel it as cleanly as possible. There’s no rules. You can eat healthy and exercise and get plenty of rest or you can be on a ten-day whiskey bender. Songs will come when they want to. Heartbreak and suffering sometimes help. But so do joy and ecstasy. It’s a mystery really.
CN: Not all songwriters are storytellers and visa-versa, but when they are one and the same, the experience of the song is on a completely different level. How important is it to you to not only be a songwriter, but also a storyteller?
MS: Funny enough, I never consciously thought about telling stories, even though most of my songs are stories. The whole storytelling thing is definitely inherent in the folk/ country tradition. It’s something I love about good country music. These days the commercial country establishment seems to have moved away from that whole story thing. But honestly I don’t pay any attention to that scene. I think most of my songs are what Bill Monroe referred to as “true songs.” They’re autobiographical for the most part. Similar to how Hank Williams wrote. If you live an interesting life you’re gonna have some stories to tell.
CN: One weekend you attended the National Cowboy Poet Gathering – which firstly sounds amazing! – and that event was fortuitous in that your path crossed with Corb Lund’s guitar player, Grant Siemens, who also produced this album. How did this relationship come about from first-time meeting to producer?
MS: I’ve always liked the Canadian country artist Corb Lund. He’s such an intelligent writer that much of what he writes goes over peoples’ heads. Grant is a huge part of Corb’s sound and when I eventually saw them play live at a bar in Missoula he blew me away.
Later on down in Elko, my late best friend Colin and another buddy and myself were drinking at a little cowboy bar that Corb and his band were at. We’d never met Corb but we asked him if he wanted to step outside and smoke a joint. He declined but said his guitar player probably would. So that’s how I first met Grant. We all huddled together in some dark alley in Elko in single digit temps and puffed on a jay.
Then I kept running into him over and over again that weekend. He was such a cool person, so down to earth. I picked his brain about his guitar tone, searching for his secrets. When I was out chasing a bronc riding cowgirl around town, he and Colin hit it off. Looking back now I’m so glad the two of them met.
Not long after this trip was when Colin started getting sick. I became pretty worried about him. This is a bit of a bizarre story but it’s true: Two days before Colin passed away I was all alone climbing a mountain in Monarch, Montana when I had a vision of the future. Colin had passed and I was trying to get a hold of Grant to help me with my music. Unfortunately that vision came true. It was just absolutely awful losing Colin. He was the greatest friend in the world and all my musical dreams were tied to him.
I didn’t know how to get a hold of Grant but I knew I needed his help. I wasn’t on social media and I didn’t have his number. I reached out to Corb’s management but never heard back. Then I saw they were playing a festival in Montana. I went to the festival and when they finished their set I knew that was my only chance to connect with him. So I walked backstage right past security like I owned the place. I mean, you do what you gotta do.
I found Grant and told him what had happened. I gave him a letter I’d written with my phone number that explained the situation in more detail. It was a very brief encounter. He texted me later that night and said he would help me make an album. I was in such a dark place after Colin passed and Grant was definitely a light in the tunnel. He’s just a wonderful human. So much more than a world class guitar player. I treasure our friendship.
CN: Another result of that weekend was “Cowboy Boots And A Little Country Dress” – which you released as a single back in February. The song is pretty much a journey entry of what happened at the Gathering.
MS: Yes that was a wild weekend! Not only did I meet Grant, I also learned how to yodel, met legendary folk singer Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, and hit it off with a bucking horse riding cowgirl who helped inspire the song.
The song is about a guy who’s out with his friends when he spies a beautiful cowgirl (“…a bucking horse rider, not afraid to be thrown…”) In a flash he’s out chasing her around town, drinking and dancing until the wee hours. It’s exactly what happened our second night in Elko. In fact, nearly every idea from “Cowboy Boots” is pulled directly from my experience that weekend. The second verse is mostly fiction as there wasn’t really a skinny-dipping love scene down by the river. It was in the single digits that week. So, you know, poetic license.
CN: Did you write the song that very weekend as it unfolded? Or was it afterwards when you had a chance to digest?
MS: I definitely wrote the song in the weeks following. I was too busy living the song that weekend to be writing it.
CN: Might not be an easy or fair question, but do you have a favorite track on the album?
MS: I like the way “Billy” turned out. Its a great mix and the guitar and steel tones are pretty much perfect. Also the way drummer John McTigue III sets up the different parts of the song really gives it a beautiful shape.
CN: Debut albums are the first impression to fans –what do you want fans to take from He Rode On as an extension of yourself?
MS: My album ‘He Rode On’ is a snapshot of a time and way of life that is quickly going the way of the buffalo. I was lucky to be living a very uniquely Montana life just before the state blew up. Even as recent as ten years ago, Missoula and Glacier Park and Western Montana felt entirely different. Instagram didn’t do Montana any favors. It really let the cat out of the bag and showed the world just what a spectacular place it was.
Then came the great Covid relocation and the Yellowstone TV series. Before you knew it Glacier Park was so crowded it had to start permitting road travel in the park. Meanwhile housing prices doubled and tripled throughout the state. BMWs and Mercedes Benz vehicles started clogging up the roads, when historically Montanans were way too down to earth for these status cars.
Just like Montana has evolved, I have as well. ‘He Rode On’ is an album full of swagger and bravado. The title track hints at what’s to come next, but for the most part this album was written before my best friend and musical partner passed away. It feels like a different lifetime really. So much has changed but I’m glad this record was made when it was. It documents a very special time in my life. I don’t know if anyone had as much fun and danger and romance as I had in Montana during my twenties and early thirties. But now I’m ready to tell the tale of what came after the fall from innocence. Its a long story and this is just the beginning.
CN: If you could collaborate with any one artist, who would it be?
MS: William Blake. And Ray Wylie Hubbard.
CN: What was the first concert you ever attended?
MS: Waylon Jennings. I was in my mother’s womb and she says she felt me kick in time with Richie Albright’s bass drum. The rhythm has always been there…
CN: If you could describe yourself in one word, what would it be and why?
MS: Evolving. I’m here for the ride.
CN: Will you be touring this summer in support of He Rode On?
MS: I hope to. I need a booking agent to help make some things happen. If anyone out there can help, please reach out. Thank you.
He Rode On is available to stream or purchase.
For more information on Michael Shaw, visit his website michaelshawmusic.com and follow him on Facebook, Instagram and Spotify.