Michael Joe White

Michael Joe White, originally from the lowcountry of South Carolina, had been a touring east coast musician before taking an extended break from music. An epiphany of sorts occurred in the fall of 2022 at a songwriting festival in Alabama that shifted Michael’s focus onto the craft of songwriting and storytelling. Working from his adopted home of Athens, Georgia he has immersed himself in the southeastern songwriting community.

In December of 2024, Michael recorded his first full length solo album at The Woods Brothers studio in West Nashville with members of the Sturgill Simpson and Hayes Carll bands. The adjectives most associated with Michael’s music are heartbreaking and hilarious and sometimes simultaneously. While the “southern still life” is his default mechanism, global settings and characters come to visit as well. Michael’s music is rooted in the folk world but owes so much to punk rock, outlaw country and even a little bluegrass. The debut album is due in April and will equally please the fans of Todd Snider, Aaron Raitiere and John Prine.

In his short time of writing and performing his own songs he has garnered personal endorsements from some of his musical heroes including Nashville songwriting legend Mary Gauthier and New England troubadour/truth speaker Peter Mulvey.