Michael Charles
media release: Join us for the concert by Chicago Blues Hall of Fame, Australian born muso Michael Charles and His Band as they take you through forty years and forty releases of music. The three hour non-stop concert overflows with precise, energetic, intense, original, and guitar driven contemporary blues, blues-based rock, and soulful ballads of Michael Charles.
Michael Charles’ musical pilgrimage started over six decades ago in his birth place Melbourne, Australia. While enjoying a successful musical crusade of touring, recording, and numerous television and radio appearances in his homeland, Michael received an invitation from Buddy Guy’s management to appear at the infamous Legends in Chicago, Illinois USA. Graciously accepting the honor, Michael Charles traveled the twelve thousand five hundred miles and took the stage with Mr. Buddy Guy. After numerous trips back and forth, Michael Charles made the monumental and life changing decision to make America his home. Charles worked the whole Chicago blues circuit performing with Mr. Buddy Guy, Phil Guy, James Cotton, Eddy Clearwater, Junior Wells, George Baze, as well as touring with blues legend, Jimmy Dawkins. Through the next twenty years, and now a nine times Grammy elected artist, Michael Charles enjoyed being featured in numerous television and radio broadcasts and several music magazines, along with gracing countless stages and pages including Chicago Blues Fest, Philadelphia Jazz and Blues Fest, Windy City Live Television, WGN TV, JBTV, The Chicago Tribune, The Chicago Sun Times, and The College Music Journal. In In 2015 Michael Charles received the extreme honor of an induction into the Blues Hall of Fame. Michael has received endorsements from Vertex and LR Baggs and in Canada from Godin / Seagull Guitars. Michael Charles’ discography is comprised of thirty-eight releases including a double CD thirty year anthology released in 2014 and the live CD “Concert at the Nest”, released in the winter of 2015. In 2016 Australian film producer started work on a documentary chronicling the musical career of Michael Charles. The Documentary was released in March of 2018 and the DVD in 2019. "Soundtracked", the CD soundtrack to the documentary was also released in 2019. In 2020 Moonlight Label released “The Early Years" , a CD of the complete 45 r.p.m. singles released 1984-1988 by Michael Charles in Australia before he moved to the U.S.A. in 1990. Also, in 2020 “19”, the downloadable album of all the Alone and Acoustic songs recorded during the pandemic became available. In August of 2021 and partially sponsored by the Illinois Arts Council Association a 2 CD and 1 DVD Box set chronologizing the entire pandemic experience from the recording studio was released and 2022 saw the singles of “Key To The Highway” and Charles’ new original song “Silenced”. In 2023 Michael Charles released his version of Wichita Lineman, paying homage to one of his guitar heroes.
At this time Michael Charles is traveling his seventeenth consecutive international tour the “40th Anniversary Tour” 2024, which will once again take him to the far corners of the USA, Canada, and Australia. The 2024 tour promises a multitude of concerts and publicity appearances as MC performs a whole new list of cities, festivals, and music venues and revisits some favorites from the last sixteen tours.