Thorpe's guitar gets them Dancing!
Brantford Expositor- March 27,2008
This past weekend was a busy one which started on Saturday afternoon at Branch 90 Legion where Mike Thorpe was entertaining a good crowd of enthusiastic dancers. The music was so smoothly and rhythmically infectious that there was always a good number of people on the floor at all times.
Mike, who plays regularly here, at the Gunners Club and the Navy Club, is well known for his great vocal delivery and superb guitar work. He uses a drum machine and is also backed up with prerecorded bass and piano on most tunes. You occasionally hear strings and horns or steel guitar on some arrangements.
This legion has started open jam nights on Fridays and because of Good Friday Mike was performing on Thursday night. He said this was the third time that open mike was held and that it's really catching on as each night more people are getting up to sing or play an instrument. The type of crowd or venue will dictate the style of music that Mike will deliver. At Branch 90 the music is more country oriented with old classics like Ray Price's Crazy Arms, Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville, or Billy Ray Cyrus' Achy Breaky Heart and Where'm I Gonna Live When I Get Back Home?
Mike likes to learn the newer material by such artists as Brad Paisley whose guitar playing, he believes, is second to none and who has one of the hottest bands in the country. I was very impressed with Mike's version of Who Wouldn't Wanna Be Me by Keith Urban. The song had that open-road, free-as-a-bird feeling to it and the harmony machine that Mike used with his voice was particularly effective on this tune. This device really makes you think you're listening to a backup group and Mike has learned to add these excellent sound enrichment harmonies in just the right places.
At some venues he may play more rock or pop. This coming Saturday he'll be at The Gunners Club both Friday and Saturday and you're liable to hear Bad Moon Rising, House of the Rising Sun, Mustang Sally, Stevie Ray Vaughn's Tin Pan Alley or Pink Floyd's Comfortably Numb. Mike is interested in doing more songs in the blues genre as well. He's currently working on Steve Miller's The Joker and Angel Eyes as a tribute to Jeff Healey.
Mike's out of town engagements keep him currently busy at two Navy Club's in Burlington and a Royal Canadian Legion in Guelph. You can learn more about Mike Thorpe or listen to some tunes at his website and contact him at mthorpe46@yahoo.com or telephone 519-751-3374 or cell 519-771-5359.
Be sure to get out and take in this fine entertainer at the Gunners Club this weekend.
(article written by Glen Silverthorn for the Brantford Expositor)