Mike Jurgensen

Mike Jurgensen has lived in the Tampa Bay area since 1968, when he moved from his native Chapel Hill, NC. Mike began playing the guitar when he was 7 years old, but it was not until 1992 that he began performing in public seriously. It was then that he discovered the Iron Horse coffee house in Tarpon Springs, where he began playing open mics. Over the next few years he branched out to do open mics and feature sets at other Tampa Bay area coffee houses and restaurants, as well as regularly emceeing the Iron Horse open mics. He has played at acoustic venues and folk festivals around the state of Florida, and has opened for such notable performers as Cheryl Wheeler, Richard Shindell, and Rod MacDonald. Mike has also been the featured artist on various live music radio shows on WMNF 88.5FM in Tampa. Although Mike had written several songs prior to 1992, that was the year in which he began writing seriously. Mike was a finalist in the 1994, 1996, and 2002 South Florida Folk Festival national song-writing competitions, and he won the 1998, 2004, and 2006 Will McLean Festival "Best Florida Song" competitions. He also placed several other songs in the top 10 of the Will McLean song competitions between 1998 and 2006 , and he placed 3rd in the 2003 competition. In addition, two of Mike's songs are featured in the Edward R. Murrow Award-winning radio documentary "Apalachicola Doin' Time", produced by WUFT in Gainesville, and his song "The Golden Fleece of Tarpon Springs" is featured in a Florida Humanities Council project entitled "Settlers by the Sea". Mike’s songs have also been used in a couple of documentaries produced by WGCU, the PBS affiliate in Southwest Florida. Mike's debut solo CD "The Road Away From Home" was released in early 2002. Mike also has a sampler CD, containing 7 of his Florida-themed songs.From 1994 until 2002, Mike performed as a member of the well-known Florida acoustic group, Myriad. Together with Myriad, Mike played concerts at coffee houses, radio shows, benefit concerts, and festivals around the state. Myriad performed at the Florida Folk Festival, the Will McLean and Gamble Rogers Festivals, the South Florida Folk Festival, and the Suwannee Spring Fest, to name a few. Myriad produced 4 recordings- a studio tape produced before he joined the group, a live tape recorded at the Iron Horse in 1995, and two subsequent studio recordings, "Song Circle" and "New Strings", both of which were released in 1997. Several of Mike's songs are featured on the Myriad recordings.Since Myriad disbanded in 2002, Mike has been performing solo and with friends at numerous festivals and acoustic venues around the state. Most recently, he has been performing with Pete Hennings and Pete Price in the trio “2PM”, and with his son, Ian, as a duo. “2PM” has released its first CD, “Keepin’ Time”, and Mike and Ian have a live CD, which was recorded at the Gamble Rogers Folk Festival.*************************************************** ************.. MYSPACELAYOUTSPY CODE START --
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