Southwestern Virginia’s Mike Mitchell has released a single to bluegrass radio from his Dead Center album. The independent fiddler, singer, and songwriter is based in the small, artsy community of Floyd where he runs the Floyd Music School.
Mitchell is a Canadian by birth, and came to traditional string music after spending his youth in the classical world. He studied violin in that milieu but since settling in Floyd, his focus has been fiddle tunes and bluegrass numbers.
His Dead Center album was actually released in 2012 but, owing to a number of complicating factors, the project was never promoted to market. Produced by Sammy Shelor, who also plays banjo, the record also boasts contributions from Wyatt Rice on guitar, Jeff Midkiff on mandolin, and Jacob Eller on bass. It features a mix of Mike’s original songs with a number of familiar tunes from the traditional fiddle catalog.
His new single is Lightning Jack, a song Mitchell wrote with his young son, a true story about a fiddler who just loved to play.
The song is available now to bluegrass radio through Airplay Direct.
