Kevin Meisel w/special guest Dave Boutette

          Born the son of a big band musician, Kevin Meisel grew up with the sound and spirit of music around him. Raised in Detroit, and traveling abroad,
he listened to the streets hearing the stories of those around him with an ear for empathy, translation and narrative. His first artistic love was
painting which took him to live in New York City where in the dank summer and autumn nights he would slip into the subways to play his guitar and
sing to the commuters. His first gigs were there, underground. Eventually, painting was replaced with songwriting.

Moving back to Michigan, Kevin gravitated to the thriving music scene in Ann Arbor, forming acoustic and electric bands with his brother Keith. There, he began to forge his artistic identity as a songwriter, playing gigs at the Gypsy Cafe, the Blind Pig and the prestigious folk venue, The Ark. His first recordings, bare and acoustic, received airplay and earned him the encouragement needed to embark on his first full-length record, Coal and Diamonds, a rich record developed in the folk tradition. Kevin's
themes are truly archetypal; he writes from the arena of the human spirit, seeming to chronicle its wanderings toward deceptions and truth. His
approach, always honest and unbiased, makes him accessible and trustworthy as an artist with a vision.

Dave Boutette's Midwest is full of passion, humor and shaken grace. Influenced by songwriters that span from Chuck Berry to Lyle Lovett, Dave
Boutette documents the trips and triumphs of life between the coasts. With a full band or just a guitar, Boutette calls up images of parking lots,
college towns and Camaros to reveal a Midwest experience worthy of space in any collection of latter day American songwriting.

Last Fall Dave released his second CD for Ann Arbor's Thursday Records, Dave Boutette And The Old Dog Songbook. Written for anyone who's lost too many afternoons hanging around guitar shops or record stores, Songbook features Boutette's perspective on the weary and wiser musician's life.
Before stepping out on his own, Boutette spent ten years with the Detroit-based alterna-rock bar band, The Junk Monkeys. The band toured the nation relentlessly and recorded under the Warner Bros./ Metal Blade label from 1990-93.