Driving cab in Toronto with a PhD in philosophy and a few songs... That was Michael Kearns, sometime in the late 20th century. Wondering what to do – become a professor or follow the songs? The songs won. Deciding to leave town and head for Los Angeles. Arriving there and ending up castle-sitting for a famous actress, and after that he found himself in a hotel off Hollywood Boulevard where the good news was there were no cockroaches but the bad news was the only smell was cockroach spray.
Making a living doing singing telegrams in a one-man donkey suit rented from the Western Costume Company, where they also have the uniforms from all the World War II movies. Then working as a bureaucrat...exchanging molecules with huge office buildings. But the songs kept coming, honest and eloquent, in the tradition of Dylan, Newman, and Prine. Some of them were about the secret thoughts of cubicle dwellers – this was long before a show called The Office. Some were about LA, some were about love and fear and time.
Then a move to Nashville, where he found a community of mad artists, songwriters of every stripe. Produced records in his home studio. Wrote for a local music paper, profiling such distinguished artists as Guy Clark, Kostas, and Suzi Ragsdale. Started to write books, and soon they were getting published and that took over a piece of his life. Along the way he got a band together, the Lonely Mammals. And on a winter Friday afternoon, they recorded 10 songs, and a CD called Death or Life was born. Buy it on CD Baby or download a couple of its songs on our download page, along with other unreleased Kearns songs.
While living and writing in Nashville for the last decade, Michael Kearns performed at many Music City venues such as the Bluebird, the Sutler, the Radio Café, the Douglas Corner and the Broken Spoke. In recent years he enjoyed a recurring gig at the legendary Brown’s Diner (pictured in the CD photos).
Kearns now live in Cape May, NJ where he continues to write songs and prose, and is interacting with a new tribe of creative souls. New songs are regularly being added to our download page.
