Mike Keneally
 

My first internet forum was alt.music.mike-keneally. I'm a big Mikey fan, he's an unbelievably great guitarist (in the unlikely event you didn't know, he was Frank Zappa's last "stunt guitarist", a select group of players that includes Steve Vai, Adrian Belew and Jeff Simmons), an even better keyboard/piano player, and a fine composer. The only criticism I'd have of Mikey is that he sometimes tries to sing too hard (he's actually a very good vocalist with tremendous range when he's singing under control) and he can kinda blow his voice out.

He also has a knack for hiring great musicians, Bryan Beller has played an amazing bass for him since the beginning with his first solo album "Hat", Rick Musallam has also been on board for many years with his fine playing, there have been many excellent drummers, percussionists, and other musicians over the years, always fine players.


I recorded this at The Potato in LA in '06, obviously with Mikey's permission




More Mikey

OK, I'm gonna try a bump, I'd be very sad if Mikey's thread turned into the least popular MB thread of all time...

Which would you say is his best album?

Boil That Dust Speck is probably Mikey''s best album, it was made during a period (in 1993) of major personal anguish as the two most important men in his life, his father and Frank Zappa, passed away. I've heard damn few songs that express grief as completely as "Cause of Breakfast". But it's extremely hard to find. There's no bad Mikey tho

Okay, thanks. I understand the orchestral The Universe Will Provide and the recent album with Andy Partridge are highly rated.

I like TUWP a lot, it's a good score & not something that's ever likely to be performed again (or at least very seldom), but my favorite non-guitar album is his Piano Reductions (one YouTube previously posted here), which is technically a Steve Vai album, with Mikey performing the Vai compositions on piano (as I said in the OP he's an even better piano player IMO than he is a guitarist, and he's fecking unreal on guitar).

Another favorite, Wooden Smoke, his quiet, autumnal 2001 album, along with the accompanying CD of alternate versions of many WS songs, Wooden Smoke Asleep