Press Release: A World That’s Bigger
October, 2016
Ann Arbor, MI. — Mike Vial’s wife said she wouldn’t marry him unless he quit his public school teaching job to pursue music.
Five years later, Vial has played 1000+ gigs across the United States and Canada, and he’s releasing a new album.
For his fourth music release, A World That’s Bigger, Vial recorded the entire folk album live with three acoustic guitars in a cabin in northern Michigan. With the help of his friend behind the mixing board, Vial completed his most challenging, personal record.
However, the release of the record lead to another unfortunate incident: Vial was hit by a car the week his record was released. Vial was crossing the road walking to a gig in Ann Arbor. His guitar in a gig bag on his shoulder took the initial impact, saving his body from more harm.
“I was supposed to play the annual John Lennon tribute that night at the Ark,” Vial said. And it gets more eerie: “I was going to play ‘All My Loving,’ a song the hospital heard on the radio when Lennon died.”
Vial’s own album covers three universal themes — life, death and love. The title track “A World That’s Bigger” celebrates the birth of Vial’s first child, but it also embraces family heartaches. “Ginny’s birth was bookended by two miscarriages,” Vial said. “Writing songs like ‘Little Drum’ and ‘Those Shoes’ helped me find closure with the fear and pain.”
And the pain runs deep in other songs like “Burning Bright,” a dedication to Vial’s relative, Michigan Senator David Plawecki. “Girl on the Mountain, Boy on the Beach,”which Vial will perform in September as a Grassy Hill Finalist for this year’s CT Folk Festival, addresses the Syrian refugee crisis.
“I’ve been thinking about how lucky I am to raise my daughter in Ann Arbor, and how so many families are fleeing their homes overseas.”
Vial hopes the music will inspire us to do more for those in need, as well as to revel in the joys of love and family.
* * * *MUSIC STREAMS * * *
Press photos: download here
Album cover: download here
Press Soundcloud stream:
https://soundcloud.com/mikevial/sets/a-world-thats-bigger/s-0xGsA
Spotify: listen here
Bandcamp: mikevial.bandcamp.com
Accident update: my Taylor Guitar lives to play another day!
If you missed the news on Facebook, heads up that I’m recovering OK, but I was hit by a car walking to a gig last week.
I was crossing Huron at First Street, walking to the Ark theater on Thursday to play at the annual John Lennon Tribute show. A driver turning left hit me while I was in the crosswalk. I still don’t know the details about what happened.
What I do know is my guitar will survive!
I was carrying my beloved Taylor 514ce in a gig bag on my shoulder when the accident happened. The gig bag took the initial impact, saving my body from harm.
The doctors who treated me at St. Joe’s were guitar players, and we had a nice chat about our guitars before I got X-rays. Their faces were more pained when they asked what type of guitar I was carrying, then when they came to tell me I had a broken foot. (Better than a hand!)
Today, my father drove my guitar to Weninger Guitar Works. Mark Weninger has been fixing my guitars for 10 years, and today he confirmed my acoustic’s guts and neck look OK!
I’m feeling blessed twice after hearing this good news. I bought this Taylor new from Guitar Center in 2001, and it has been my main guitar for all of my 1000+ gigs, except for one: last year’s John Lennon Tribute at the Ark.
This guitar has been my main axe for recording sessions, too. I used it for seven of the 10 songs on the new record. You can hear it on songs 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10.
The guitar won’t be pretty, but she’ll be ready for my record release shows in Michigan: Oct 29 at the Ark and Oct 30 at the Acorn Theater.
Big thanks to my dad who was roadie all weekend. Additional thanks to songwriter Nancy Beaudette for the kind Bandcamp note, and Shawna Caspi for sharing my accident story with Laurie Brown, host of the Signal. I appreciated getting that kind message on Twitter! #signalitesunite!
All of you road warriors be safe!
THIS WEEK:
No gigs for me this week, I’m still recovering and figuring out what I’m going to be able to do. However a few of my friends are playing gigs in town:
- Thursdsay, Oct 13: Sedgewick – at Cafe Verde 7 PM
- Oct 14 & 15: Frances Luke Accord open for Darlingside at the Ark!
Sunday, I’ll be back to promoting my new record, with a live interview and performance on the Back Porch on WVPE 88.1 FM between 7-11 PM.
Michigan Radio Interview & Live Performance
Thanks you to Stateside and Michigan Radio for having me on the air yesterday, discussing that fateful decision to leaving teaching for music, David Plawecki’s dying wish, and my new record.
You can hear my interview with host Cynthia Canty from Stateside here: Michigan Radio Stateside
Michigan Radio also posted the full song performances on their Soundcloud here:
My new record A World That’s Bigger is out today! October 3, 2016.
Read the story and order a CD here: mikevial.bandcamp.com
Available on all music players including:
iTunes & Apple Music | Spotify | Amazon | Google Play
Watch a videos below.
Filmed by Charlie Steen. Audio mixing by Solid Sound Recording Co.
Fluke Takes in Chicago by Will Thwaites, Brian Powers, Nick Gunty
Filmed by Charlie Steen. Audio mixing by Solid Sound Recording Co.
Those Shoes – Coping with Loss with Art
This week, my wife wrote a funny, touching essay about a “pain in [her] ass.”
Spoiler: It’s not me.
Rather, Natalie’s been having some back pain. And this made her think about the residual emotions we’ve had coping with miscarriage. (Read her essay here.)
Natalie writes about the experience better than I can in prose, but as she mentions in the essay, I did approach the topic in a song called, “Those Shoes” on my new record (that comes out tomorrow, as in Monday, October 3!)
Recording “Those Shoes” in the Cabin
Mike Gentry at the Burg Cabin Recording Sessions – May 2016
“Those Shoes” was the most difficult song to record when Mike Gentry and I went to the Burg cabin in May to track for three days.
It was the only song I hadn’t played live, hadn’t fully decided on the structure…I wasn’t even sure if I was ready to put this song on the record.
I wrote the first draft in 2014 when I lead a songwriting club, but I didn’t share it with anyone after that. I revisited the song in 2016 after Nat and I had the second miscarriage. By the time I went to the cabin, I had three possible endings of the song.
When Gentry and I were recording, I stopped in the afternoon after a rough set of takes, and said, “I don’t think I’m going to get this one right.”
He guided me through more tough takes, and told me I needed to sing as softly as I could, be delicate with the guitar’s finger-picking pattern. Remember, I recorded this record live. If I messed up, I have to do it again, and again, and again. Gentry’s patience is a virtue. And then he spent hours mixing it to maintain the delicate emotion.
We got the right.
Revisiting a Canty’s Question
Recently, I taped an interview with Michigan Radio’s Stateside that will air in October. Cynthia Canty asked me, “What do you want listeners to get from your record?” I wasn’t prepared for that question; I rambled.
But I’ve got a more honest answer: I want folks to feel a catharsis from the music, a healing from song.
If you are feeling a loss, even during a celebration that’s a bit shadowed, this record is for you.
And artists, do you ever feel that fear about oversharing in your work? I’ve toiled with this worry a lot over the years, and I’m still learning to ignore my fears. My best songs come when I address personal experience.
So I hope the record offers a reminder for you artists to run past that imaginary line. Be courageous. Create your best, honest work. Don’t worry about mistakes. Your work matters.
Lyrics for “Those Shoes”
We’ve had a rough stretch
Our tired arms are powerless
To what comes next
To what comes next
We lost a heartbeat
A secret kept between our feet
I was stepping back
I was stepping back
This pain won’t last
This pain won’t last
I know…
I’m tired, yet I can’t sleep
My mind has more than I can keep
To myself
To myself
I know there’s more that I could do
To sooth your pain and comfort you
I’m reaching out
I’m reaching out
This pain won’t last
This pain won’t last
I know…
And if we share our fears in twos
Could we have filled those shoes?
And if we share our fears in twos
Could we have filled those shoes?
We’ve had a rough stretch
My new record, A World That’s Bigger, comes out tomorrow, October 3, 2016! You can order a physical or digital copy here: mikevial.bandcamp.com. Every sale or stream helps, and it will be on all music platforms (iTunes, Apple Music, Spotify, etc.) on Monday.
