The Moonshine

The Moonshine is a loose and bright constellation of similar-minded musicians taking the magic of the stringband as their foundation and turning it into something resembling the sounds that shaped them. Original and dynamic, with deep roots in all manner of Folk, Indie Rock, Pop, Blues, and Spiritual traditions, the group focuses mainly on the songs that Michael Gerard Levasseur has written over the course of a lifetime traversing back and forth between the East and West Coasts of the United States.

After a chance meeting on a fire escape in Portland, Oregon, the husband and wife duo at the core of The Moonshine fell - luckily not off the fire escape - but instead in love, and they've been making music together since 2005. Songwriter Michael Gerard Levasseur (aka Michael the Blind) and multi-instrumentalist Rachael Renee' Levasseur (now married) founded the postmodern stringband The Moonshine in 2012 along with a revolving cast of some of the PNW’s most unique and sought-after pickers. Together they toured the Western United States extensively playing countless shows and festivals, releasing two full-length albums, and contributing the score for a documentary film.
Just after the release of their second album, Michael and Rachael moved to Athens, Georgia, where they eventually picked up additional band members and hit the road again to share the music with folks in TN, AL, SC, GA, and FL.



2019 brought another big change when they returned home to the Rose City from where they are again playing shows around the PNW.

Still guided by the duality of Michael’s love of engaging with past poetic principles while weaving them into modernistic moods, the shifting cast (sometimes a duo, sometimes a trio, quartet, or even five-person band) bring a whip-smart take on old ideas. and a fascinating quiver of crooked, truth-tipped arrows aimed at the future, to every stage they play.