How Mike Barrett and His Show Got That Way
A long time ago in a galaxy far away, there lived a little boy named Mike Barrett, who some people called "The boy from God knows where." Mike lived in an area of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania called Greenfield which was named after a place in County Galway, Ireland. None of this has anything to do with the story you're about to hear, and even the story itself is told only in order to dispel the possible illusion that Mike's upbringing had some basis in wholesomeness.

Remember, this ain't Lillith Fair
At the age of 12, while sitting in his 7th grade classroom, a sort of "Show and Tell" event was going on and one of the boys in the class played his guitar while another boy sang (They did two songs, the first was House of the Rising Sun, the second was G-L-O-R-I-A, Gloria.) At the same moment, two high school girls (the high school girls were far, far beyond 7th grade sophistication. They lived in a world 7th graders only dreamed of) walked past the room and heard the boys singing. They waited outside the door until class was over and made an enormous fuss over the boys. Young Barrett thought they sucked and felt that if they could do it he could as well and he told them so. Later that year, after being beaten up by the two boys several times, Mike asked for a guitar for Christmas. His Uncle Billy, being in a business where he frequently came across musical instruments, burgled one for him. Mike and his next door neighbor Brian Bassett (who would later become a member of the famous band Wild Cherry - "Play that Funky Music White Boy") both got guitars that Christmas and played together nearly every day. Their paths eventually diverged when Brian developed a passion for Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix, while Mike became a fan of Will Millar, Dennis Day and Whistle MacDog.

The next big step in Mike's journey came at the age of 15 when his father came home from a "meeting" and said "Hey do you know a joint down on Liberty Avenue called the ***name withheld for legal reasons***? You should go down there some time. There's a broad there that plays all that fag music you like."

Mike went to the bar one night, but being only 15, and this being a bar on the first floor of an illegal whorehouse (his mother referred to it as a house of sin, his father and grandfather called it a house of pleasure) in the the red-light section of town, couldn't get in. Noticing a kitchen door behind the stage, Mike snuck into the closed kitchen and listened from in there til the girl broke a string and took a break.

She came into the kitchen to replace the string but first, she went to the bar to get a drink. While she was gone, Mike replaced the string. When she returned, she thanked him and asked if he played. He said that he did, and she invited him up to do a song. Mike, being sincerely ignorant of how terrible he really was, accepted gleefully. When he went up to play his song, the audience - mostly consisting of businessmen, criminals and politicians, waiting their turns to go upstairs - didn't listen at all, a distinct advantage to all concerned. Fortunately, the owner of the "club" was in the bar and drunk off his tits at the time. Mike, in a somewhat prophetical move, played a dirty Irish song. The owner, in a gesture of overwhelming pity, hired him and let him play in the club 3 days a week for the next year to patrons waiting to "get their ashes hauled."

With his experiences of that year under his belt - so to speak - Mike now thought of himself as the man from God knows where, and set off traveling around the US and Canada playing pubs, festivals, coffeehouses, and anywhere else music was present with his only stated goal being "to get big enough to be rude to everyone and not just the poor."

Since then, Mike has traveled the world singing and playing, lived in Ireland for several years. Played everywhere imaginable, recorded records, tapes, CDs, soundtracks, music for commercials etc. He's been banned on the radio in Ireland, and has been listed in the Guinness book of World Records as the only person ever to have been deported from Canada (a feat previously thought to be impossible.)

The Show

The Mike Barrett show is wildly funny, horribly irreverent, impossibly politically incorrect, and in some people's opinions (particularly people who get triggered by buzz words rather than entire messages,) pretty damn offensive. The show is also extremely eclectic, thoughtful and in some people's opinions (particularly people who listen to what's actually being said) touching, substantial and sentimental.

Come and check it out for yourself.

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