Story span
1978–present
A public timeline that begins in the Michigan years and stays alive in the current bands.
Artist legacy site
Mike Mancour
Guitarist • Singer • Songcatcher
From Michigan roots to Nashville stages, Mike Mancour's musical life spans blues rooms, car shows, club bands, songwriter circles, classic rock sets, charity stages, and the living joy of performance. This site gathers the recordings, photos, videos, and story into one public home.
The front door
A lifetime of music, finally gathered in one place
This is not a one-band bio or a one-season highlight reel. It is the front door to a lifetime of music: the rooms, the roads, the friendships, the grooves, the experiments, and the performances that kept the thread alive from the late 1970s to the present.
The through-line is simple: catch the song, serve the room, honor the craft, and leave behind something true.
Geography
Michigan → Nashville
Roots in Michigan, then decades of growth in Tennessee stages, clubs, and communities.
Musical thread
Blues • Rock • Country • Roots
A working catalog built from live rooms more than branding campaigns.
Why this site exists
Preserve the legacy
To gather recordings, videos, photos, and stories into one clear artist home.
Current chapter
The story is still active
The legacy matters because the music never really stopped. These are living bands, living songs, and living rooms — not just archive memories.
2026–present
KnuckleBall
Yacht rock and classic rock
A current chapter built on groove, hooks, tasteful guitar work, and songs that land with an audience.
2025–present
Gritz & Glory
Old country and old rock
A set-driven band chapter mixing familiar songs, shared vocals, and rootsy room energy.
2023–present
BluesSlinger
Blues-rooted live performance
Feel-first performances that put phrasing, soul, and restraint ahead of flash for its own sake.
Featured recordings
Listen first
A few starting points from the archive — early experimentation, formative band years, and songs that still carry the thread.
TSI
Whirlwind
Total Spontaneous Improv
A TSI track with rising energy and wind-driven riffs toward the end.
ListenTSI
Released
Total Spontaneous Improv
An expressive early recording that captures the experimental side of the catalog.
ListenHot Ice
Hold On Loosely
Hot Ice
A live-band era marker from the Hot Ice years.
ListenFeatured videos
Watch the live side
Performance is a huge part of the story. These clips show the room, the phrasing, the band feel, and the lived reality behind the archive.
Featured
Life Is Beautiful
A feature performance with Queen Bee in the spotlight.
Watch on YouTubeBluesSlinger
Thrill Is Gone - BluesSlinger
A blues standard delivered with patience, phrasing, and room feel.
Watch on YouTubeInstigator
Tennessee Whiskey - Mike Mancour - Instigator
Blue Water Grille at Hurricane Marina on Memorial Day.
Watch on YouTubeStory spine
Selected eras from the public timeline
Michigan foundations, Nashville working years, modern band chapters, and the present-day legacy build all belong to the same long musical thread.
1978–1990
Michigan foundations
The first stretch of the story was built in Michigan: early bands, rehearsal rooms, school-era photos, local stages, and the first years of serious live work. This is where the guitar, stage identity, and band instincts took hold.
1990–2006
Nashville arrival and working years
After moving to Tennessee in 1990, the story widened into rock and blues clubs, Nashville show-band work, Broadway nights, hired-gun calls, songwriter friendships, and multiple chapters of regional live performance.
2007–2022
Modern chapters
This stretch kept the thread alive through variety bands, acoustic work, blues, rock projects, and modern local-band life — a steady continuation rather than a nostalgia act.
Archive gallery
Photos that prove the miles
Not staged placeholders — real archive images from real bands, real rooms, and real chapters of the story.
Why this matters
A real artist legacy, not scattered fragments
The point of this site is to make the body of work visible: the bands, the media, the current projects, the earlier years, and the lived musician story behind all of it.
It is meant to feel curated, warm, and credible — part archive, part public home, and part invitation to listen more closely.
Connect
For booking, collaboration, media, or just to say hello, the simplest next step is still the best one.