Saturday September 7th – 4-6pm – Join Michael for his Birthday Celebration at Barterra Winery in Half Moon Bay – First glass of wine is on us!

Larry Norman & Michael Vincent Together at Last!

In 1967 a kid from San Jose CA, (Larry Norman) formed a band called People! and became so popular they were opening for bands like Janis Joplin, The Who, and more.

People! got signed to Capitol Records, and released a single called I Love You – by the Zombies in the UK but it never made a splash in the US until People! released it, and it went to #1.

But when they went to record the full album, Larry Norman as the lead singer wanted to include rock songs he’d written about his faith in Jesus, but Capitol said no, and the band broke up, and their album was never released.

BUT Capitol Records signed Larry to their Gospel label and he released ‘the’ first ever Jesus Rock album called Upon This Rock. With counter culture starting to seep into the churches, Larry’s music and his records made their way to youth groups.

Indeed his music became so popular he was eventually able to start his own record label (Solid Rock Records) and had a stable of artists that also performed Jesus Rock and toured the US.

I opened for some of those (and other major) artists with my own band (Home Free) when they came to the Bay Area on tour, and we became a bit of local rock stars ourselves of the genre as a result. lol!

Larry Norman had a great and long career in music, and was proclaimed by Rolling Stone Magazine (& others) as the Bob Dylan of the Jesus Rock genre.

He died in 2008, and left behind myriad unfinished lyrics. His brother Charles, also a rock artist (who lives in Norway and is signed to an indie label in Europe), sought out current or former Jesus Rock artists to finish writing the lyrics and adding music to Larry’s unfinished lyrics, and he and I connected.

He sent me 5 or 6 of Larry’s sets of lyrics, and I finished 2 of them, writing my own additional lyrics, and adding my own music – making one a country song (named by Larry, ‘Cowboy Song (Gravity)’ and the other a punk rock song, called ‘I Got No (But I Got What I Need)’.

Charles Norman really liked what I did with Larry’s lyrics, and invited me to come to Norway (with wife Janet) and record the two songs I completed, and add them to other artists who’re also completing some of Larry’s songs, to create a tribute album in Larry’s honor.

Charles himself moved to Norway from the US after meeting his wife and getting signed to the indie label while on tour in Europe. He lives there with his Norwegian wife, who’s a very popular artist in her own right (she’s a painter) and their 12 year old son. We’ll be staying for a few days in Oslo as tourists, and the rest of the time with Charles and his family.

So needless to say, we’re totally stoked about the whole trip, and I’m over here doing a happy dance, as I get to record 2 songs I cowrote ‘with’ Larry Norman, one of my all-time rock and roll heroes!

MICHAEL VINCENT is a well-known San Francisco Bay Area singer/songwriter and recording artist who performs with his full band U No Who in clubs, bistros, and concert venues across the country, and occasionally as a solo artist in more intimate settings with his trusty lead guitarist Scott Warren. Available worldwide May 26, 2023, the new MICHAEL VINCENT
album ELECTRIC FOX showcases an exciting new direction in Michael’s writing style that displays a range of genres from power pop to alternative, blues, Americana/roots music, and even edgier punk and metal influences while always maintaining that signature MICHAEL VINCENT feel.

In addition to featuring some exhilarating new material like the single “Together,” a frenetic and fast-and-furious depiction of a couple trying to make it against all odds, the new MICHAEL VINCENT album ELECTRIC FOX is also a compilation of personal and audience favorites from the last 25 years, including a redux of three songs previously recorded on earlier folk-rock projects that have now been updated with an exciting new infusion of positively electric energy. The first four tracks of ELECTRIC FOX were produced by Keith Greeninger at his Wind River Recording Studio in Santa Cruz, CA; he also helped cowrite the lyrics for the track “Last Summer.”

MICHAEL VINCENT and U No Who performed at Barterra Winery in Half Moon Bay on Saturday May 27th in celebration of the ELECTRIC FOX album release! ELECTRIC FOX is being released on Angel Blossom Records, Michael’s own Bay Area independent label that he formed over the last few years with his wife Janet Klein Hollingshead to cultivate a hand-picked collection of talented local artists.

U No Who is comprised of guitarist Scott Warren (White Collar Crime), bassist and backup vocalist Dave Mendoza (Lydia Pence, Cold Blood, Gismo, Mick Gilette, Ronnie Beck), and percussionist Anthony Fulgar (Santana, The Tellez Band, Pete Escovedo). With influences from across the spectrum including The Strokes, Nada Surf, New Order, Malo, Azteca, and Jaco
Pastorius, the band was formed in 2018 to perform live with MICHAEL VINCENT. While Michael’s influences are originally from the folk-rock era of the singer/songwriters of the ’70s along with more contemporary influences, Scott, Dave, and Anthony bring a whole set of flavors to their performances from blues to classic, pop, and progressive rock, to Latin and even jazz-fusion influences.

MICHAEL VINCENT began writing and performing in his early 20s and has released seven solo albums since his debut Lines and Wonders in 1993. He made music in some of the folk-rock haunts of ’70s San Francisco, and eventually recorded with nationally known artists such as Mark Karan (The Other Ones, RatDog, Phil Lesh and Friends) who was featured on the MICHAEL VINCENT album Radio (2007). Other previous MICHAEL VINCENT releases include Upside Down EP (2012), Jump! (2016), The Longest Time (2018), and For The Record (2020), and he has opened for phenomenal artists such as Jeff Pehrson (Furthur, Box Set) and the stellar Ruth Gerson.

Michael’s songwriting and performance philosophy is change it up! “You don’t listen to just one kind of music; I don’t listen to just one kind of music,” he observes. “Why in the world would I only want to make just one kind of music?” The thread of musical influence on Michael’s music runs the gamut from The Beatles (who always said “never write the same song twice”!) to the ’70s folk-rock singer/songwriter era, to ’90s and early 2000s pop and alternative bands like Crowded House, Gin Blossoms, Pete Yorn, Joan Osbourne, Snow Patrol, or Fruit Bats, to other artists like New Order. His songs always have that signature MICHAEL VINCENT feel as he traverses through genres and influences, and he’s not afraid to tackle edgier sounds and themes like in his song “Fire Fight” about a woman veteran returning home from war. Michael explains, “Why? Because when your nerve-endings are frayed from horror stories about a war,
the song has to have that same edge in order to communicate the experience – it demands it!”

Michael also calls upon his personal experiences through 35+ years as a Social Work Chaplain among the homeless and mental health communities. “I’m of course influenced by every human experience I’ve seen first-hand (and sometimes experienced myself as having been homeless in the early 70s), and the way our deepest selves are shaped by these things.”

And he’s still an active volunteer at a local drop-in-center for the homeless. “I have both that abiding sense of faith that sees people in destitute poverty beyond their despair; and make a serious effort to connect with them in such a way that I might be able to help. But it’s equally vital to simply come alongside and share bread with people who are personally so vulnerable they’re virtually stripped naked of every pretense imaginable.”

“I also write pop songs,” Michael says with a wink and a smile. “I’m totally committed to being present with folks living on the margins – period. And in the same breath can celebrate just how pop music carries a great release – no matter what our situation – even as a kind of ‘escape’ in a way – but also to help us take a big deep breath – a ‘release’, even – and for even just a moment
inject some uplifting energy into whatever we’re experiencing. Pop music doesn’t solve anything in particular, except when it’s able to bring a kind of immediate solace to one’s spirit.”