The Michael Updegrove Band

Born in Oklahoma City in 1953. He is a self-taught guitarist who at the age of 12, started performing in Churches, School Sock Hops and Teen Clubs around OKC and the surrounding towns with “The Streets Brothers”. They won several Battle of the Bands competitions held by local radio personalities such as Johnny Dark, Danny Williams, Dale Weeba and Ronnie Kay.
By the age of 14 Michael was performing in night clubs and bars with a local band called “The Beast” and eventually put together the first group of his own named Tonnage. They played in Oklahoma and the surrounding states for three years.
Then came “Toe Jamb” which Michael formed and fronted and this band performed all over Oklahoma, Texas, Missouri, Arkansas and Kansas playing mostly songs written by Michael. It is this band that earned him the name “Magic Mike” in 1971….. the year he graduated from high school.
In 1977 Mike took a psychedelic progressive rock band “The Decibel Destroyers of The Ozone Layer Band” to LA where they quickly broke up having lost their backer in a drive by shooting. In 1978 Los Angeles the music he was playing was becoming passe. Then Magic was offered a contract that same year with Capricorn Records which he thought was not right for him. So he came back to Oklahoma and started performing blues as “Magic Mike and The Wild Blues Yonder”.
This band had quite a bit of success. But In the early 80’s Magic Mike was asked to join a dance/funk group called “Everyday People”. They stayed In OKC playing the bar scene until the band leader moved to Florida to play with former members of Sly and The Family Stone. Mike reformed “The Wild Blues Yonder” and continued under that name playing in seventeen states up to 2014. This group opened for groups such as B.B King, Lonnie Mack, Clarence Carter, B.B Coleman and backing Oklahoma Blues Hall of Fame inductees Doc Blues and Miss Blues, and well known international artists such as Lowell Fulson, B.B. Coleman and Pinetop Perkins.
Magic Mike has performed on stage with Johnny Winter, Lonnie Mack, R.L. Burnside, The B.B. King Band, (without B.B.) and Robert Lockwood Jr. Johnny Winter once said he "had the feel" and “could be someone special". Pinetop Perkins called him "a pretty good guitar player". Lonnie Mack said he was someone he "would remember forever". Lowell Fulson said he was "the real deal". He has been called "Oklahoma's Best Kept Secret" and "An Oklahoma City Blues Legend" in Southwest Blues Magazine.
At sixty one he is better than ever and able to trade licks with some of the best young blues players around.