WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA., August 1, 2008 — "And them swaggerin' politicians down here / Wavin' their flags and talkin' so tough / But ignorin' what folks really need / And we've had just about enough!"

So sings Michael Koppy on his "ultra left-wing Confederate call to arms" (San Francisco Chronicle) - and he means it. "One Great Mornin' (The South's Gonna Rise Again)" blasts all despoilers of Koppy's beloved South, from rabid developers to hypicritcal preachers, and everyone in between.

And Koppy is putting his money where his mouth is, releasing the tune for free download in hopes of inspiring progressive Southerners to vote Democratic in November.

"One Great Mornin'" made its first appearance on Koppy's debut album as a nine-minute plea for Dixie to awaken, performed in a stark style with only acoustic guitar and harmonica.

But both Koppy and his producer, Garrett Soden, felt the song was too strong to be given only that one chance to find its audience. So when it came to planning Koppy's sophmore effort, Ashmore's Store, both agreed that a new, more accessible version of "One Great Mornin'" should appear on the album.

Recorded in L.A. and Nashville, the new up-tempo version features Woody Paul (Riders in the Sky) on fiddle, with Cliff Carothers (Malice) on drums, and producer Soden on second guitar and bass.

Working in his home state of Florida as an organizer for the Democratic party during the 2004 elections, Koppy was stunned when Bush won yet another term. Remembering that experience - and the positive reaction he'd gotten from the first version of "One Great Mornin'" - Koppy was determined to get the message out via music this time around.

"The song has really touched people," says Koppy. "I had one listener tell me she had to pull her car over when listening to it because she couldn't see through her tears."

The song is also availabe to the media on a promotional CD. Contact Wayne@MichaelKoppy.com for more information.

WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA., October 24, 2007 — To promote Michael Koppy's sophmore album Ashmore's Store, Good Track Records has released three songs from the album in rough-mix form on the EP One Man, One Guitar and a Harmonica.

Leading off the EP is an astonishing cover of "Alone Again Or", the 1967 cult hit by Love. In a radical departure from the typical approach to this song (which has also been covered by Calexico and The Damned), Koppy includes no horns in the arrangement, and instead delivers a tour de force of finger-picking fury.

Next up is "What If," a ballad Michael wrote that looks at opportunities and losses in life. The EP finishes with "We Shall Overcome," which also features Koppy's innovative guitar work.

The EP was recorded, mixed and produced by Garrett Soden in Los Angeles.

The EP is available free to media outlets. Contact Wayne@MichaelKoppy.com for more information.

WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA., May 20, 2006 — Michael Koppy, whose debut album Red River Redux has just been released, was so ignorant of the music scene a few years ago that he had no idea what an "open mic night" was when he stopped by a bar near his San Francisco home for a beer. After an amused barmaid explained the concept, Koppy revealed that he played and sang a little himself, but hadn't appeared in public for twenty-five years.

It took weeks of encouragement from the barmaid before Koppy finally gathered enough nerve to set foot onstage. When he did, he played what he'd always played for his own relaxation: an eclectic mix of cowboy songs, campfire tunes, and forgotten pop gems, each freely altered to his own liking (he calls it "front porch" music) and delivered in a rich baritone and with astonishing finger-picking virtuosity.

With a new lyric here, a new melody there, his version of "Whoopie Ti-Yi-Yo" revealed the poignancy of a cowhand's regret at leading his herd to their doom. "Oh, Susanna" was rescued from cliché to become a heartfelt tale of romantic desire. "Above and Beyond," popularized by Buck Owens, was given new life as a bouncy declaration of everlasting love. In Koppy's hands, every familiar song burst forth with new passion. The roar of applause when he finished proved there was an audience for Koppy's free-wheeling mix of music and his radical approach to it.

Producing the album uncovered surprises about these classic American tunes. Researching their origins (for both legal clearance and the historical record), reveals that freely altering "standard" lyrics and melodies is what shaped many of our best-loved and most familiar songs in the first place:

• "Red River Valley" derives from a Canadian poem, circa 1865, which accounts for the French word in the line "Don't hasten to bid me adieu." It was later copyrighted under the title "In the Bright Mohawk Valley."
  
  
• "Wildwood Flower," made famous by the Carter Family—and credited to Alvin Carter—was not written by him at all, but based on a song from 1800. As Koppy notes, "Legally, Carter should never have even received a copyright.  It had been copyrighted, in 1860, and as of 1902 was then and forever more in the public domain."
  
  
• "Whoopie Ti-Yi-Yo" dates all the way back to 1600, and originally had nothing to do with cowboys or cattle drives. One version, circa 1672, was titled "I Father a Child That's None of My Own."

While recording the CD, Koppy suggested to producer Soden that he'd like to include an original song on the album, feeling that since he had rewritten others' material, he had an obligation to contribute his own work to posterity. Although Soden thought that unnecessary, he agreed to consider it, expecting a love song or another cowhand's lament. Instead, Koppy delivered a nine-minute tour-de-force that gave the producer chills when he first heard it.

Taking as its theme the cynical manipulation of the South by exploiters and despoilers of every kind, "One Great Mornin' (The South's Gonna Rise Again)" recalls the righteous authority of Woody Guthrie and early Bob Dylan, and proudly declares an uncompromising left-wing stand. "I was stunned when he played it for me," said Soden. "I certainly wasn't expecting something of this caliber, since, to my knowledge at the time, it was Michael's first crack at songwriting. I think "One Great Mornin'" is a masterpiece, and frankly, I feel honored to have been the person who heard it first."

To many listeners, the big surprise is Koppy's accomplished playing, which easily stands along side the best. Developed largely on his own over twenty-five years with virtually no input from outside sources, Koppy's unique and blazing finger-picking highlights nearly every song. "It's really quite astonishing," states producer Soden. "Here's a guy who worked up all these intricate and difficult picking arrangements on his own and strictly for his own satisfaction. He uses unorthodox techniques, switching from rapid finger-picking to flat-picking in the middle of a song. His style isn't at all like the squeaky-clean finger-picking we've heard a million times. Michael plays with a fierce passion, and you can hear it. You can hear the strings smacking against the fretboard. It's got life. And I think we captured that on this record."

Koppy is himself a mix of down-home integrity and big-city hustle. Raised in Tallahassee, Florida, he was expelled from high school, despite being a finalist for a National Merit Scholarship. At seventeen, he ran away from home, the first of nine trips he took across the country by thumb and boxcar. Traveling with little more than a guitar and a bag of clothes, he worked as a laborer in a gunpowder factory, Broadway stagehand, elevator operator, carnival barker, union organizer, small-town newspaper editor, construction worker, strip-show spotlight operator, and many other odd jobs. Finally settling in San Francisco, Koppy boot-strapped his way into the entertainment industry, eventually producing and directing stage musicals, television, and concerts (Buck Owens, the Blues Project, Riders in the Sky), and other events.

Red River Redux is available on Amazon.com, CDBaby.com, and independent retailers. Visit www.MichaelKoppy.com for more information.