Today marks the official launch of my new website, which I hope will give you a glimpse of my life and, more importantly, my music.

For the last few years, I’ve been feeling the need for an image “makeover” of some sort. When I’ve mentioned this to friends, they thought I was considering reinventing my music, but my music is an extension of who I am and there is no way I could ever change this. What was needed was a new approach to how I promote my music.

I’ve always loved folk music that is grounded in the western experience, but event promoters just couldn’t seem to get past the cowboy hat; they were blinded by the “Hollywood Cowboy” stereotype and couldn’t grasp the idea of a “western” equivalent to bluegrass music. I hope this website will make it clear that my music encompasses many styles of music and might best be described as “Newgrass”, which is slightly ironic for someone who is best know for clawhammer banjo, an instrument that is pretty much only associated with “old timey” music. Which leads me to the second reason this website exists...

The other great passion of my musical life revolves around my version of “missionary work”: spreading the “word” that clawhammer banjo can fit into any musical genre and is not just limited to “old-time” music. My clawhammer banjo teaching page has gone a long way toward achieving this goal, but this new site will give me a chance to take it even further with articles, reviews, videos, sound files, and instruction.

Those who know me well, know that I’m somewhat opinionated and not shy about sharing those opinions. With this in mind, I’ve included a section entitled “A Folksinger’s Opinion”. I’ve put some limits on my editorializing by restricting myself to subjects I can tie into folk music (note: my personal FaceBook page is exempt from this rule!). As folk music has traditionally tackled such subjects as politics, religion, philosophy, and social injustice, these “limits” might not mean all that much...

All this being said, welcome to my world... Mike Iverson