
Mike Farris entered a different planet during those long school bus rides in Franklin County, Tennessee. It was the world of radio. The bus driver fixed the dial to WCDT (1340 AM). Its flavors were notably diverse, from country to rock and roll to Motown and soul, from Conway Twitty and Loretta Lynn to the Staples Singers and Al Green.
“I was a quiet kid and sitting on the bus and soaking in this station,” said Farris. “I didn’t have a dream about music. My parents were too busy trying to feed us. We were the only isolated house down the road. No family, no friends nearby. It was me and the radio, looking out the window. As a little kid, music fed my desire to be in another world, to be someplace where there was a lot of life.”
Mike’s father had a small but telling record collection. Five records were in the inventory: two of them by Hank Williams. Two recordings were done by Jimmie Rodgers. One of them was from Johnny Cash. The other was a Tennessee Ernie Ford record.
Mike bought his first harmonica at age 18, after he received his GED, and left Franklin County in favor of Knoxville. “Everyone had a vision and a plan,” said Mike Farris. “They were going to college or vocational school. I had no plan. I was floating around. There was a rockabilly band called the Boogie Disease, and they were incredible. The lead singer to this day (Isaiah “Ike” Ross) was the greatest frontman I have ever seen in my life.”
A few years later, Mike Farris, who had unfortunately developed an insatiable drug habit, was living with his father in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, trying to resist the tidal wave. He had recently overdosed. His father unquestioningly took him in, hoping he could self-heal and self-withdraw. While his father was at work, Mike would think, meditate, pray, and read. There was a Washburn acoustic guitar in the living room. There was also a tuner and a Mel Bay’s Guitar Chords book. Mike stared at the Washburn for several days. One morning, he picked it up and messed with the strings. Thirty days later, he was constructing songs. One of them seemed to have inexplicably drifted in from elsewhere.
“One day, a song, “Gypsy Lullaby”, entered my head,” said Farris. “It came from a prayer, a meditation. After I had an overdose, I wanted to know where I was supposed to be and where I could find peace and purpose. I was praying to this God I didn’t know. It was something that absolutely wanted me to be at peace and have purpose in this life. My mantra was, show me where you want me to be… God was gently holding me and guiding me along this way.”
One year later, he was signed to Atlantic Records. A purge, a reconciliation, an affirmation of the underlying joy to be found in explicit heartache and pain, “Gypsy Lullaby” was included on Farris’ second record, Magnolia, released in 1996. “The song represents a tender, beautiful time for me,” said Farris. “Representing trust in the process of letting go and how possibilities lead you to something light-filled, positive, and purpose-filled.”

Farris has been clean and thriving without substances for 14 years in April. He bitterly fought and struggled with addiction for many years, even well after he wrote “Gypsy Lullaby”. Once he finally explored and investigated the reasons why he was hooked, he was able to begin a whole new journey as a liberated person independent of addiction.
Indeed, it has been a wild, unpredictable, and wildly exhilarating ride for Mike Farris, on the cusp of releasing his newest music, The Sound of Muscle Shoals. The album is a continuance of Farris’ flirtation with many musical influences, the joys of a man who has retained the wondrous curiosity of the inner child on the school bus, forever mesmerized by the independence of the airwaves.
“I think there are some great musical moments on it,” said Farris. “I think that the musicianship is good. There is a lot to love about the Muscle Shoals area. Muscle Shoals still has its roots grounded, and I feel like that’s where I needed to be to be making my kind of music these days. My surroundings have a great effect on me. It feels like some kind of magical and deep vortex.”
“Ease On” is Farris’ attempt to reconcile all of the emotional sentiments that coming home triggers and entails. “It is hard to look back when there is so much life in front of you,” said Farris. “But this song is different because it represents a cathartic time, the point where it is okay to go home. It made me understand just how dedicated and caring my mom was and how hard it was for her trying to raise us while she was carrying the whole world on her back.”
In “Bright Lights”, Mike Farris reminds listeners, and perhaps even himself, that everything in life takes a toll, that emotional ups and downs are always a part of the story, and that it is okay to have compassion for all of life’s hard times. Perhaps the most agonizing toll, he said, comes when we don’t live up to the expectations that we set for ourselves.

“The song shows what’s behind the curtain,” said Farris. “People don’t know how you got here, how hard it was… Sometimes, life ain’t always what it seems to be. That was a tough song to get through for a while… When I came back in 2005 and was trying to get and stay clean, I was too scared to work. I didn’t sing a note for two years.”
There is a singular pressure to songwriting that could leace even the most experienced singer-songwriters drained. It isn’t always enjoyable, but sometimes, it is a miraculously unobstructed occurrence.
“Sunset Road” is one of those songs that fell out on the paper and seemed to write itself,” said Farris. “It’s like I was being shoved to the side, and something subconscious, God, whatever, it was taking the pen… It’s about how we are losing precious time and energy worrying and losing the present through worrying. It is one of those songs that has shown up and prepared me for a way. One of those really beautiful moments when God allowed me to go to the top of the mountain and see the view. We are made and built for the valley.”
The Sound of Muscle Shoals is the dynamic expression of an artist who long ago realized that knowing the road to avoid is as important as the road to take. Farris’ road has taken him to northern Alabama and deposited him back to the sacred comfort of the Tennessee soil. Indeed, there was a period in Farris’ life when he lived in New York City, the stage in which his demons engorged beyond control, and he was caught in an absolutely unmanageable swamp of drugs. That’s the time when he felt the most stuck. Now, however, he’s feeling the downright opposite.
“At 57, I am settled in,” said Mike Farris. “I am open to new things personally and musically. Everything keeps blossoming into this more beautiful thing. Suddenly, all of these musical influences have converged. Rock. Blues. Country. Gospel. Soul. They have all learned to play together on The Sound of Muscle Shoals.”
