A new short story: KingandtheMaiden
Here are just some of Michael’s ongoing projects:
WoodSongs Old-Time Radio Hour: Michael created and still hosts the multi-format syndicated, live audience broadcast. The show airs to nearly two million fans each week on 515 radio stations, the American Forces Radio Network in 173 nations, plus in millions of USA TV homes across north America on public radio and TV and also nationwide on RFD-TV (WoodSongs.com)
The Walden Play: his four character, two act, one set play about the final two days Henry David Thoreau spent in his cabin before leaving Walden Pond has been shown on nationwide TV on PBS stations and has been registered for performance over 8700 times in 42 countries. (WaldenPlay.com)
The Woody Guthrie Opera: is a fully orchestrated, traditional opera Michael composed about the day Woody Guthrie wrote his classic song, This Land Is Your Land. The opera’s main characters of Woody, Pete Seeger and Paul Robeson sing about the dramatic and true encounter Woody had when stranded in a snowstorm outside of Pittsburg PA and saved by a Pennsylvania Ranger. You can hear some of the orchestrated arias here WoodyGuthrieOpera.com
SONGS OF RURAL AMERICA is a fully orchestrated, live performance concert designed for symphony orchestras. Journey through America’s musical heartland from 1861 to the current time. Turn your community orchestra stage into a classical “front porch” and merge the roots and classical audiences together, introducing the orchestra to a whole new audience. Orchestra directors can email radio@woodsongs.com and we will send you an unpublished page to review the orchestra arrangements.
WoodSongs Front Porch Association is a member supported music community and educational effort. Our mission statement: To gather the global community of front porch minded musicians and help them do good work, bring roots music education into schools free of charge, and enhance communities by redirecting the tremendous energies of local musicians. We call our members “SongFarmers.” A “SongFarmer” is any artist who uses their music to make their families, their hometowns, their careers better. (www.songfarmers.org)
Caney Creek Motion Picture – The Legend of Alice Lloyd motion picture: the true story of Alice Lloyd begins in a hospital out side of Boston MA. The doctors tell her she has only a few months to live, longer is she moves to the warmer climate in the south. Along with her mother, Alice moves to Knott county Kentucky in November 1916. In February, a mountain man named Abisha Johnson has a dream this “ferrin woman” would teach his children to read, he crosses two mountains through a snow storm and begs her to come to Caney Creek. What happens next is nothing short of stunning. See details at CaneyCreekMovie.com