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MICHAEL UBALDINI 'The Rock n Roll Poet'

 

"Rebel With A Cause"- O.C.Weekly

                                            

Journalists & fans call him ‘The rock n roll poet.’ He's an Outlaw folk & rock n roll singer songwriter with a cause –songs of real life experience society,social struggles , ,love ,rebellion& satire –

A man with a message .A voice of the forgotten regular people kicked around by life who beat the odds .He overcame death more than once –being told he’d never play music or walk again after a rare illness in 2009 then collapsing and dying right on stage only to rise up and survive with a full miraculous recovery.Thrown in a UK  jail while on tour ,hanging out with other immigrant's being held in the tank  from all over the world .Armed with his battered acoustic & electric guitars,soulful harmonica  & his  songs , he has a perspective other songwriters don’t have,follows no one & goes where the winds takes him. He also hosts his own radio show 'Outlaws of folk music radio' on KXFM 104.7 Laguna Beach

 

His new album  Rabbit Foot Carnival  with his band the Starshakers release is out now.

  Like his previous albums it was recorded raw & live in the studio – music and  vocal's recorded  all at once-. Song of our time album in 2019 was hailed as a top release of the year in The USA & UK. A raw Folk album with 21st century lyrics.

His 'Acoustic Rumble' album was named “#1 release of the decade and #1 album of the year with the # 25 best song of the decade Poem to my country’ on the  years end  top 100 by  Los Angeles Times by legendary  music journalist ‘Mike Boehm’ who also declared the album 

‘Better than Springsteen's Ghost of Tom Joad".

 The album also topped the New york ‘Village Voice Pazz & Jopp poll’ & named #1 by The Orange County register.

 

He has also garnered critical acclaim in the UK in hip & underground magazines and blogs.

 Mojo magazine named Michael's  release Last Of The Honky tonks #6 of the month and Shindig magazine in 2018  naming his social commentary song  ‘Jeanie Lees Phone'  from the acclaimed vinyl release ‘The Ballad of Brian Jones’ -“A smash hit waiting to happen” . Legendary Stones photographer Gered Mankowitz did the vinyl album cover. His new songs  Jeanie Lees Phone  &

Scratch My Back,Memphis Bound & Jean Harlow  played regularly in 2022 on Little Stevens Underground garage -Rodney on the rock show.(Also his first  teenage band The Earwigs garage classic  'Here Come The Earwigs')

 

Michael also has won numerous  awards for  “Best roots Album , Best Live Performer- Best songwriter – by The Southern California Los Angeles & Orange County music awards.- .Several music journalists in the USA & Europe  have dubbed Ubaldini “A Jack Kerouac in a black leather jacket”

 

The prolific songwriters  2021 album was a raw collection of original folk songs with guitar and harmonica only entitled 'Music Notes From The Underground'- a follow up to the acclaimed 2019 album ‘Song of our time’, as well as the re-issue of the Indie folk classic

‘Acoustic Rumble legacy edition’.The new album is filled with protest songs ,life’s struggles & songs that don’t pussyfoot around.His newest release Rabbit Foot Carnival  has been released summer 2022 and first with is full band since 2016's Starshaker- legendary music journalist Robert Kinsler calls it "A Bona Fide Masterwork"

 

Michael started playing guitar and writing songs at age 7.

The first songs he learned were Hank Williams Jambalaya and and Ray Charles ‘What I’d say’ both learnt from his Dad- He was an odd kid with a 146 IQ as a child  –This isolated him so he listened to records by the likes of Howlin’ Wolf ,CCR,Rolling Stones Robert Johnson ,Hank Williams ,Ray Charles ,The Beatles,Bob Dylan pre war Gospel & Woody Guthrie  instead of children's records.Early on  he played  county fairs   and sang  at sideshows while barkers did card tricks.

When he got to high school it was - rock n roll  ,Folk music & 1st wave Punk .

 

What always has set  Ubaldini apart from his contemporaries is his cross breeding of  styles blending Rock n roll  music, early 20th century ballads  ,Folk & delta blues along with honky tonk and what some call 21st century protest songs with attitude .He remains 'apolitical' -not of the left or the right- "I'm one for the everyday people not left or right with extremist  ideologies  -my songs sometimes hold a mirror up to society that's all -I never was much of a follower"

 

His musical pioneering would later emerge as categories marketed  such as ‘Americana’ or ‘Alt Country – but Michael cant be labeled and came from a  more rebellious & artistic  dangerous side of the tracks , singing for the underdog, banging away on the  guitar- He once was quoted saying:

 

“Because nobody would write these type of songs,people said I shouldn’t –– It didn’t fit in with mainstream pop or  these pay to someone else your money  for songwriting workshops where people conform to rules and don’t write what they live –Music needed an alternative to that. Someone had to write this type of songs . These things needed  to be sung so I wrote em’-

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His fan base included & includes legendary artists such  The Late Joe Strummer of  Punk legends & rock n roll hall of famers 'The Clash' & ‘Brian Setzer’, both who would turn up at his live shows -the latter dueting on a song with Michael on his debut album produced by Lee Rocker

 

He has recorded albums At the Legendary Sun Studio in Memphis –

Capitol records Studio B in Los Angeles for his album 706 Union Ave  with his former  band ‘Mystery train’ for EMI –He has been featured numerous times at The Bluebird café  in Nashville &championed by The UK DJ Bob Harris.

He has done recent shows with artists diverse as  Judy Collins & The Kingston Trio to Dwight Yoakam.The Cramps, Don Mclean & Lucinda Williams-Jerry Lee Lewis & Brian Setzer.

His very first band ‘The Earwigs- (in his teenage greaser  Punk rock days) released a single now garnering 300 dollars by collectors .

 

He is a  published poet (His book Lost American nights lyrics& poems from Moon tide press now in its 2nd edition)-He also has been featured twice -CNN Headline News with two feature stories on his music. ABC's  ''Eye on LA'  caught him for a live TV  clip on stage  at

 'The Woody Guthrie Fest" in Echo Park CA. Despite his roots ,Michael is in no way ‘Retro’ and dismisses the term “just another label’' . His songs are  authentic  but with 21st century lyrics relevant to there here and now -He’s packed a lot of songwriting ,singing & outlaw folk & rock music between his wild road life,cheap motels ,relationships and pool halls.

 

Michael is true American  songwriter

‘The rock n roll poet’