While it’s entirely accurate to describe the music of Detroit legend Michael Katon as ‘blues’, it also fails to do justice to the power, intensity and raw Motor City attitude that Katon commands with every note and chord. Ever since he first started playing around the bars and clubs of Detroit at the tender age of fifteen, Katon has infused the traditional blues sound with his own Michigan ‘tude, and is today considered one of the world’s finest exponents of blues rock.

After spending 20 years on the move, honing his trade with various blues and rock’n’roll bands, Katon relocated from Los Angeles where he had been living during the mid-70’s, to the aptly named village of Hell, Michigan, and released his debut solo album, ‘Boogie All Over Your Head’. In keeping with his own DIY ethics and with a firm desire to avoid compromise, the album was released on Katon’s own Wild Ass Records label. It was his dirty boogie style, hoarse vocals and hard-hitting riffs that helped Katon win popularity with fans of hard rock and metal music as well as the blues cats.

It’s refreshing to know that Michael Katon, a blues artist in the purest sense, is still around and playing music the way he wants to play it. Such integrity is rare in the modern music sense. Michael Katon is indeed the real deal.

• Rock
• Blues