There are two versions of Michael Powers: there is the steely-eyed realist from Bayonne by way of the city, all New Yawk accent and sly asides.
And then there is the 55-year-old man who is still struck with wonder, still enthused to be living this life and discovering more about it every day.
"I was hanging out in the back most of the night, taking pictures and looking at the guitars, you know, just hanging around," Powers says of his recent appearance the Blues Music Awards, where he was a best contemporary artist nominee.
"And this guy next to me says 'hey man, I really like your voice. It's haunting.
And then he goes on stage, and he starts singing "Abraham, Martin and John. And it was Dion, man! Dion!"
Powers loves the music of his childhood in the 60s. Mostly, he loves blues.
But he's found his blues feeling in all sorts of spinoffs, notably the work of Jimi Hendrix; and he covers eclectic tunes, like one of his personal favourites, Count Five's 'Psychotic Reaction.'
It wasn't the kind of simple and cohesive approach record companies are looking for, and for many years Powers struggled in obscurity; he tasted some early success with the Ad Libs, a New York r&B group that scored with "Boy From New York City" back in the 60s. And he toured for awhile with James Cotton, laying down the blues old school But eventually he settled into the comfortable-if-unprofitable New York club scene.
He's held down a twice-weekly gig at Terrablues in New York for several years.
Onyx Root, released two years ago on Baryon Records, changed all of that. Propelled by the boogie-based emotional conviction of 'Successful Son' and featuring some incindiary covers, it quickly became apparent from critical acclaim that the rest of the blues scene had finally caught up to him.
"What I've been doing is what I've always been doing, because that's the stuff I like," he says matter of factly. "And there were times when people used to say 'that's not going to make it happen for you'. But I knew if you stick true to yourself then it doesn't matter, because eventually God makes it happen for you."
He brings up God quite frequently;
MICHAEL POWERS
