Michael McNevin

Jack of all trades, master of some—Michael McNevin is a touring singer-songwriter, a stalwart of the California and American folk scene, and a brilliant storyteller with seasoned vocals and accomplished guitar chops. Michael’s showmanship and music delight audiences, transporting listeners into the vibrant worlds of his songs. Hear him on the main stages of the Kerrville Folk Fest and High Sierra Music Festival or in the comfy nooks of The Mudpuddle Shop in downtown Niles, California.

Quirky conversations, odd jobs, and narrow escapes, the lyrics in Michael's songs read like short stories—full of heart, humor, and a keen eye for detail. Through the lens of a troubadour, McNevin discovers towns and characters in the corners of every day life. A busking clown on a Michigan lake, a trailer mechanic in Barstow, a turnstile jumper stuck in a Jersey Jail, a scarecrow in love. Michael also shares the teenage adventures of the McNevin brothers and their friends, the touching moments of his elders, the families he grew up with. 


Michael’s songs and career have earned him multiple main-stage appearances at the Kerrville Folk Festival, The Strawberry Music Festival, the High Sierra Music Festival, the South Florida Folk Fest, and others across the US and Canada, as well as shared stages with Johnny Cash & The Carter Family, Donovan, Shawn Colvin, Richie Havens, Robert Earl Keen, Iris Dement, Rosanne Cash, Greg Brown, and many others. A songwriter's songwriter, he is an 8-time winner of the West Coast Songwriters 'Song Of The Year', and a winner of the Kerrville New-Folk Award in Texas.

Michael grew up and resides in the train town of Niles, California, where Charlie Chaplin filmed “The Tramp” and where the first set of railroad tracks entered the San Francisco Bay Area in 1869. Niles is 'Mayberry' with a head shop and a biker bar. Its people and peculiarities show up in Michael’s lyrics and song banter. The laughs and fabric of a Huck Finn childhood, the small town observations, continue to spill into his art, work, and life as a neighbor and community builder.

An Etch A Sketch Artist artist of some renown, Michael also delights and dumbfounds audiences with song illustrations on the classic red toy. His drawings have been shown in galleries, across the US, featured in arts magazines and television specials, and they hang in living rooms of his music fans. One drawing (depicting a song about the worse game of his life as a Little Leaguer) hung as folk art in the Cooperstown Baseball Hall Of Fame for a year, the key piece to the new "Kid's Sandlot Clubhouse". 

When not on tour, McNevin makes music in The Mudpuddle Shop, an 1880s barber shop he converted to a creative hive for himself and other touring musicians and music lovers. Songwriters, jammers and song swappers, all frequent the speakeasy for friendship and fun. It is one of the most intimate (tiny) concert rooms west of the Mississippi (seats about 25 people and a dog). Now in its 17th year, the shop also displays many of Michael's Etch A Sketches. They hang proudly on the Mudpuddle walls, waiting for an earthquake.