Mike Andersen - Raise Your Hand

Mike Andersen opens up his 9th album with a bang: a self biographical song, 'Slamming The Door'. A humorous piece about being aware of what kind of person you want to become, both in music and in life before you actually end up slamming a door you should have left open.

"I've been writing sad songs so long, and then it struck me: The only way to survive emotionally in these turbulent times is to embrace the chaos weve been thrown into and accept the fact that, Yes, we all get messed up sometimes but that's ok. We can face this together"

It was out of this, that the title song 'Raise your Hand' was born. The sound of this song is different from the rest of the album, -being more old school with upright bass and horns, different from we've been accustomed to hearing from Mike and the band.

The rest of the album moves effortlessly through the myriad of genres we know from earlier Mike Andersen Band albums: A personal mix of the blues and soul music Mike fell in love with at an early age, but without the tyranny of "genre dogma". Mike and the band demonstrates increasing inspiration from from today's music.

Mike Andersen's characteristic voice, his intense guitar phrasing, and not the least, the fantastic band he's had on the road for more than ten years, have created an album of natural practiced elegance. To capture this nearness and authenticity, the album was recorded 'live in the studio' on analog tape.