Part guitar-slinging poet, part joker, part environmental crusader… Mike
Aubé is a multi-dimensional songwriter who is grounded in roots
traditions, but with hints of funk and rock influences.
The New Brunswick-born folkster held a brief career in teaching, until
his quarter-life crisis led him to pursue the music bug that had been
implanted in him by folk-rock rebels of the 60s. Mike honed his
performing chops by playing acoustic rock covers in bars with his former
band, Rust Bucket, while quietly crafting songs behind the scene. In
2006, with the help of Rust Bucket, he released his debut full-length,
Aberdeen Street, which continues to delight CBC listeners and live
audiences with quirky, upbeat, literary tunes, dashboard religious
figurines and a UFO abduction.
Mike’s recent release, Cluster Folk, delivers more good, clean fun with
tales of love gone right, love gone wrong and the dangers of falling
asleep in front of the TV. Drawing from folk, rock, funk and bluegrass,
Cluster Folk is a rambling jaunt that veers a little to the left of the
ordinary.
“We really had fun making this record. We didn’t try to mould it into
one specific sound – where the song called for bluegrass, we did it
bluegrass; where the song called for funk, we brought in a four-piece
horn section. But there’s still an underlying folkiness to it, thus the
name Cluster Folk”.
With a “voice of smoke and honey”, interesting chord progressions and an
easy stage presence, Mike is poised to become one of Maritimes’ finest
performing songwriters. He has shared the stage with some best in
Atlantic Canada, including Dave Gunning, JP Cormier, Jon McKeil and
Sherry Ryan.