About Mike
Mike Shaw is an Atlanta-based writer and musician. A singer-pianist, he began touring in the late 1960s, performing in nightclubs and on concert stages, solo and with jazz combos, ultimately settling in New Orleans in the late ‘70s. As a writer, he counts more than 15,000 published articles, from investigative pieces adopted by 60 Minutes and ABC 20/20 to articles, white papers, and blogs for corporate clients. He has founded and presided over three Atlanta-based marketing agencies. In addition to his novel, The Musician, released by Blue Room Books in June 2021, he co-authored Understanding Economic Equilibrium, published in May 2021, and The Leadership Edge, published in November 2024, both by Business Expert Press. His podcast with jazz pianist Kevin Bales, Music Life and Times, is available on all podcast platforms.
ARTS ATL calls The Musician a “vivid tale."
For The Musician (Blue Room Books, 325 pages), Mike Shaw draws upon his decades as a performing musician to chronicle the fictional story of Tom Cliffe, a pianist devoted to his craft but without a pathway to stardom or financial success. Like many working musicians, Cliffe survives on the edges of the business: playing small nightclubs, living in humble quarters, fighting temptation, and constantly scrambling to earn enough money to survive.
Listen to a sample chapter
Music Life and Times, Mike Shaw’s podcast with internationally renowned jazz pianist Kevin Bales, argues that becoming an accomplished musician requires discipline, self-acceptance or self-confidence, and cooperation. They are also the life lessons that music teaches those who would learn to play. The podcast seeks to prove the premise through revelations about music and musicians past and present as well as from the podcasters’ own experiences as career musicians.
