Mike Tabares Biography
Born in Detroit, Mike spent his musically formative years in Texas where he first caught the blues bug via the recorded works of Lightnin’ Sam Hopkins " I still like that acoustic sound,” says Mike.
Times being what they were it didn’t take long for Mike to discover the electrified blues of Paul Butterfield, and through that the genre’s giants like “B.B. and Freddy King, Buddy Guy, and other musicians like them. His musical interests were varied enough to incorporate a range of styles. “Anything rootsy, from jazz to country. But I always kept coming back to the blues.”
Moving to Toronto in the early seventies, Mike quickly established a reputation for blistering fretwork. His first gig was with a band called Ginhouse, featuring Al Lerman, now leader of Juno-winning Fathead. He subsequently worked with Oshawa’s Steven C, holding down a legendary house gig at famed Chicago’s (alongside Madagascar Slim, arguably one of Canada’s most innovative, if underrecognized, guitarists) that’s still fondly remembered by the city’s blues cognoscenti.
A move to Whitby a few years back seemed logical as his wife’s passion for gardening demanded room to grow (pun intended), and again Mike wasted no time making his mark with his former outfit, “Listen Up.” But he found that name a little overused, and when his keyboard player left for warmer climes he took the opportunity to regroup ( with Alex Paris on bass and John Meydam on drums) and is just now hitting the circuit under the banner of “Mike Tabares and The Passionate Blues.”
