Grammy winner PJ Curtis:
Michael is a terrific talent... a fine poet with a great "lived-in" voice. I love it. Great story songs. Dancing in the Boneyard, Country Girl (great atmosphere here), Nightbird's Waltz and Rockabilly Saturday Night are the standouts. And [Let's Pretend We're Strangers] must be the first tuba solo I've ever heard that made me stand in amazement! ...a truly superb work.
Radio Ranger, KOPN 89.5 FM, Columbia, MO:
I was on board with "Love Boat to Reno" from the moment I heard the first track. Dancin' in the Bone Yard is a mesmerizing song with cinematic lyric images and great clarinet hooks baited with a vaporous ghostly violin... From the first tuba note and swing clarinet sounds on the title track, it's obvious you're not on an ordinary journey with Michael's mystic ship on a sea of imagination. By the time the boat docks, you're glad you've been along for the ride.
Don Charles of D-Squared:
McGarrah’s songs function like an emotional spyglass, peering about the room and soaking in the significant details. He is an iconoclast in the Tom Waits tradition – often the point of departure is so skewed that you feel he’s taken you to the wrong place (Love Boat to Reno?). Then the poet does his magic and you realize he had you right where he wanted all along. And he can write a love song that will make you ache for it.
David Cowling, Americana UK:
Possessed of a voice that can tell a story in many different forms from the Tom Wait's lite of "Dancin' in the Boneyard" to folk, country and spoken word, he'll turn his pipes to any gentle genre. Sometimes he makes a connection with the material: "Nightbirds Waltz (How Are You Sleeping Tonight)" has a cargo of emotion whereas the title track is all about seersucker suited dandyism - he likes to play roles. He's the narrator on "Rockabilly Saturday Night" and on "Iowa" he shows that he can write "the dust has blown her years away, stole the color from her eyes," this tale of disappointment soundtracked by violin and viola stealing the show. McGarrah is a stylist using generic patterns to tell his stories - there's humour and emotion packed in with the role-playing.
Victory Music Magazine:
McGarrah is a story teller. His tenor/baritone voice is compelling and convincing as he weaves his Americana tales.
Indie Artists Alliance Songwriters and Storytellers – Vol.2
http://www.indie4life.com/2008/06/indie-artists-alliance-songwriters-and.html
Judges chose Michael as one of 32 finalists in the 2007 Grassy Hill Kerrville New Folk Competition for Emerging Songwriters. He performed his winning songs live at the 2007 Kerrville Folk Festival.
Michael made the top five in the 2007 Dave Carter Memorial Songwriting Contest, and performed live at the 2007 Sisters Folk Festival with his fellow finalists.
Michael was also chosen as one of 12
finalists in the 2008 South Florida Folk Festival Singer/Songwriter Competition.
Michael's original song "Iowa", which is featured on his debut album, won the prestigious American Songwriter Magazine July/August 2005 lyric competition. The album, titled "Love Boat to Reno", was released in May 2007. See the Music page for lyrics and song samples.
