Mike Blair is A Hundred Miles, but From Where?

He’s dropped the dreadlocks but not the guitar!  Mike Blair, who I’ll always remember as the frontman for that riotous acoustic / tribal / celtic band Madison Greene, is now leading the new band A Hundred Miles.  Same great writing and vocals, but a more straightforward acoustic folk-rock sound.  If you’re familiar with Mike Blair at all, you’ll remember he spent some time recording as Michael Blair Project (my first post ever).  A Hundred Miles is, as far as I can tell, basically the same band and same sound under a different name - one that won’t be confused with this Michael Blair Project.

Back in the days of Madison Greene, I picked up a little silver CD at one of their shows.  It was pretty plain, off by itself, came in a white envelope, and was labeled “Mike Blair Project” in a simple but catchy font.  The little CD set me back about $3 for the few songs on it, but it’s been a mainstay in my playlists ever since and was well worth it.  Just Mike Blair on acoustic guitar, but the simple format gave the songs a chance to shine they’d never get under the Madison Greene cacaphony of sound.

Since that time when I found that first solo CD, I’ve somehow come into possession of MP3s of the same few songs recorded by the full Michael Blair Project band.  I wish I could tell you where I got them, but to this day I don’t remember.  Wherever I scored them, they’ve also joined the ranks of great songs in my ever-expanding library.

And now, just when I began to fear Mike Blair was done writing, playing, and recording, I found out they’ve changed names and become A Hundred Miles.  His songs are catchy and heartfelt, deep but not overwhelming in lyrical obscurity. I’m excited to see this band continue to grow and produce music.  Mike Blair is exceptional on acoustic guitar, his softly raspy voice is one of my favorites, and his writing skills can’t be denied.  The rest of the band is really tight and helps flesh the music out - Rich Hounshell adds some great electric guitar licks, Mark Lizyness lays down some solid drumming, Ryan Evans handles the bass just fine (it just needs to be a little louder), and Tom Hagaman does such a great job on keys that I actually like it better with it.  I tend to not like much piano or keyboard in my music, because it seems like a lot of piano and keyboard players don’t know how to accompany other instruments without overriding them.  Tom does a great job of accenting each song with the keys and not trying to take over the song.  He also plays electric guitar on a few of the songs, in case you were dying to know.

So I’m excited to hear the band is definitely not done.  Musically, this is some of my favorite stuff out there.  Lyrically, Mike Blair is an excellent writer who has never felt obliged to write cliched songs filled with over-used lyrics.  That’s a very good thing.  And besides all that, I love how real the band is about God.  Their MySpace page lists “Rahab the prostitue, Mary Magdelene, ‘people of the book’, Moses, and my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ” as influences.  Their songs, though rarely, if ever, mention God by name, are filled with obvious references to Him.

I get annoyed that most of the Christians in indie music are scared to be upfront about their beliefs.  They’re worried the church will judge them for playing secular shows, wearing dreadlocks, and never mentioning God by name in their songs.  And the’yre worried the world will judge them for making any claims to loving God.  I’d like to see way more Christians who are producing music that the indie world can grab ahold of but are upfront about their beliefs.  I understand everybody’s got their reasons for keeping quiet about Christianity, but I get tired of all the Christian artists you’d never know were Christians.  I often think about what Lenny Smith told me in an interview:

Go forth… into the coffee houses and bookstores and clubs and get into the action.  Sure [you] are going to get hurt and disappointed and have some rejection and some fans and some bad experiences and some good ones.  Join the club!  We are not here to huddle together and wait for someone to come and save us.  We are here to get in the game, the real game, not make our own game that just imitates the real game. … How did we become such cowards?  We should be afraid of nothing!  With what we have in us we can do anything at all!

Mike Blair and the gang are one of the few exceptions who seem to be really honest about their music and their faith in God.  For more, read this blog.  :)  Wow, a shameless self-plug on the blog I’m shamelessly self-plugging.  Seriously, I’ll put up secular music, I’ll review Christian artists who aren’t upfront about God, but I really wanna find the radicals who are going out making cutting edge indie music to bring the light of God into dark places.

Below is a new demo song for you to enjoy, and check out my mix CD of personal faves for an older one from the band. I’ll have this song up for my usual limited time, but after that, you can get it for free (if you missed it or just really want a second copy and can’t remember how to copy a file in Windows) by signing up for their newsletter over here. Anyway, here’s the song.  I think you’ll like it:

Dispensation - Download - Stream

Myspace: www.myspace.com/ahundredmilesmusic
Website: www.ahundredmilesmusic.com

Note: All MP3s will be removed after two weeks.