Story and photo by Jon Winter
For those who know him, the image of musician Mike Morningstar in a green satin suit and a white ruffled shirt is difficult to imagine, but true.
A Parkersburg native, Mike’s Dad planned for his son to join him at Union Carbide. Having studied guitar since the age of 12, and already a professional musician at 16, he chose instead to move in with an Aunt to continue a life in music.” I was making, money, big money,” Mike laughs, “$40-$50a week! I spent it all on clothes; I even bought a pair of Beatle Boots!”
The West coast music scene drew Mike first to Oregon, then down to the Santa Monica/Venice area of southern California. ” I was in an 8 piece soul band – one of two white guys. We had these show suits; gold, blue and green. Satin, with those ruffled white shirts. The leader would call and say ‘green tonight.’ I’d wear blue, grease my hair, just to poke fun.”
Forming a group playing R&B, which Mike defined as ‘white guys playing black music,’ ‘The Pastels played black clubs, parties and skating rinks, along with studio gigs.
Following a two year stint in the military in 1968- 69, Mike returned to California, but then traveled around the country – Florida, Wyoming, then Austin, Texas.
In 1975, Mike moved to Glenville, obtaining a degree in Forestry from Glenville State College. “I was interested in horticulture.” Music, however was his muse. Music and its ability to cross cultural and language barriers had Mike firmly in tow. “Music is feeling, first,” he says. “You create structure through the song to convey those feelings to the audience. Music is a spiritual thing. You don’t need to understand the words to understand the music.”
Morningstar sees himself as a descendant of the ‘billboard singers,’ traveling minstrels who would read the news on the community billboard, set it to song, and conveyed the local happenings. Thus was folk music born. Mike’s first contribution was ‘Buffalo Creek,’ one of many he wrote with social and environmental themes. Originally recorded in 1974, Mike and cohort Ricky Roberts recently re-recorded the song on his album ‘The Journey Home.”
Hoping to help slow the expansion of mountaintop removal, saying “there is no such thing as clean coal,” Mike tries to raise awareness; “Two years ago, there were two rivers in West Virginia that required pollution warnings. Today it’s state wide. If you can’t eat the fish from our rivers, there’s something wrong!”
He is not afraid to tackle controversial issues in his songs, putting Mon Power, Buffalo Creek Mining Company, and various environmental miscreants under his musical microscope. Making music that addresses the issues is fertile ground for Morningstar. “I think I’ve changed some peoples’ perspective. I might have been involved in increasing their awareness. I’ve had people come up to me and tell me my music has touched them.”
“There’s all sort of emotional strings I play when I pluck. I want to involve them with what I feel, and have them feel something.”
Life now is focused around his organic homestead and his family. Home is a 70 acre farm in Gilmer County. With an acre under cultivation, the family enjoys various fruits, grapes, blackberries and strawberries. In addition to making their own wine, they hand grind their own corn. A two acre pasture holds their eight horses; Donna, his wife, is a horse trainer
The Morningstars have even succeeded with citrus; a lemon tree delivering 11 fruit last year, along with tangerines and oranges. “We’re always trying to figure out how to be less connected to the grid. Although some have tried to convince us otherwise, we’ve never left Eden, never drifted away.”
“We try to be as self sufficient as possible. It’s a subsistence farm, no chemical anything, no treated wood, nothing. Although I’m not a vegetarian any more, we don’t buy commercial meat — all those hormones and antibiotics, too much bad karma. We eat a lot of deer meat, and fish that I catch.”
Mike continues, “I’m enjoying what I’m doing now. I’m wise in ways I wasn’t when I was younger. It lets me be on cruise control. I think people make a mistake when they define success by money. Happiness is more important to me than some financial edifice.”
Deftly flexing his signature hickory stick, Mike muses ruefully. “That hickory stick is my Frankenstein. I worked for years to master the guitar, and all people want to hear is the hickory stick.” His hickory stick is similar to an ancient instrument called the Berenbow, which was a pole ending in a clay pot. A wire was attached, and the tone changed by sliding a stone behind the wire as it was bowed. Like Frankenstein’s monster, the hickory stick has had a greater effect on Mike than he could have imagined. He likes to sit in with ethnic musical groups: Cajun, blues, Irish pub musicans – groups that use the washboard, the washtub bass, the bodhran, primitive instruments. They appeal to Mike. “Primitive instruments aren’t commercial, they have a sound you feel in your gut, like the didgerdoo. That type of music doesn’t have a ’style.’ It appeals to all ages and cultures. It’s universal,” he says.
“Like the American dream,” he continues. “Music of, by and for the people.”
Mike Morningstar is currently promoting “Still Moving Mountains: The Journey Home“. All proceeds from the album will be used for grants and other educational and charitable purposes consistent with Aurora Lights’ mission to raise awareness of the impacts of mountaintop removal coal mining. For the project, he was also recently interviewed by The Chesapeake Bay Daily.
