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True North
Michael Straugh
Meditative, contemporary piano solos to quiet and soothe the soul. Michael Straugh has written the soundtrack to the quiet times of life. Indulge yourself.
| # | Title | Length | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
|
Against the Shore | 5:45 | Play |
| 2 |
|
Scheherazade | 3:35 | Play |
| 3 |
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If Only | 3:39 | Play |
| 4 |
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True North | 5:48 | Play |
| 5 |
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The Kiss | 4:21 | Play |
| 6 |
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Wedding Dance | 8:14 | Play |
| 7 |
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First Breath | 3:35 | Play |
| 8 |
|
Lullaby | 3:26 | Play |
| 9 |
|
Linus and Sally in Love | 3:31 | Play |
| 10 |
|
Sunday Mornings Here With You | 4:01 | Play |
| 11 |
|
Mediterranean Nites | 3:52 | Play |
| 12 |
|
With Eyes Closed | 3:20 | Play |
| 53:07 | ||||
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|---|---|
| Bitmunk Marketplace Service | USD $0.98 |
| CD Baby Artist Royalty | USD $5.97 |
| CD Baby 9% Digital Distribution Cost | USD $0.54 |
| Bitmunk Download Service | USD $0.61 |
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Description
Michael grew up in the Midwest in a musical family. His 80 year-old grandmother could still play her piano, and Patsy Cline had nothing on his mother. He began writing even before he was given his first guitar. And after his grandmother passed, it seemed someone needed to play her old piano.
Michael taught himself to do just that. And he began writing on it from the beginning. He says he's always been more of a composer than a musician. This is evident in his music, where every note seems somehow necessary.
Despite a passion for music, Michael did not pursue it professionally for quite some time. After a degree in business, a career in computers, a stint in teaching, and a great many people urging him to heed the call (for whom he is quite grateful), Michael undertook this project in fall of 2003.
With True North, Michael turns to face both his calling and his passion, ready to accept them and the journey they bring. This is not only an embracing of a musical style he has courted for years, but an embracing of a new life direction. And the title says a great deal about how he feels about that direction.
Much of True North is a telling of life, as all true art is. Pieces such as Wedding Dance, written during a very rainy honeymoon cruise, or First Breath, written to be played during the birth of his first daughter, capture the emotion life's turns imbue us with. True North is in fact a song cycle spanning the brashness of youth, the finding of true love, the circling of life, thru a lonely journey at its conclusion.
Though somehow familiar, there are subtleties that make Michael Straugh's music unique. These are born of the union of a number of sources. The most important musical component to Michael is melody. Interestingly, to be a piano solo, he says it must likely be a melody that is difficult, at best, to sing. Counter pointing is also important as it adds interest and tonal complexity; as is a strong rhythmic component (the piano is, after all, a percussive instrument). The way Michael combines these is likely left over from his youth - where his musical sensibilities caused him to want to hear the rhythm, bass, leads and fills played by other instruments in the recordings he loved. Out of a sort of necessity, he began incorporating them into his solo renditions.
If you've ever found the peace in George Winston's works, or the joy and wonder in Michael Gettel's, you will find these and more in this enthralling new album by Michael Straugh.