Biography
Mike Tremblay was born in Detroit and raised in East Detroit and Sterling heights. He spent much of his summers in a cottage just north of Lexington and since then has had a love of the area. He moved near Port Huron when he was 19 and has been living in the area ever since. He now makes his home just south of Port Sanilac.
He began writing lyrics/poetry when he was 14 and picked up a guitar to put music to those words when he was 15.
He joined several "garage" bands until joining a band called the "Sirens" at 18.
They played around the metro Detroit and Ontario area and put out one album of original songs.
He left the band when he was 21 to start a duo called "Us" which performed his original songs and songs in the folk tradition.
"Us" put out one tape of Mike's original songs in 1983 and broke up in 1984.
He continued playing and writing his original material at home while getting married, having kids and settling into a "real" job.
As the kids began getting older, he picked up his guitar and started preparing for playing seriously in public again.
In December, 2001 He played in public for the first time in almost 20 years at a coffeehouse in Lexington, Michigan.
It was, in fact, his first ever performance "solo" with an acoustic guitar.
Needless to say, he was nervous but, it went pretty good and he's been playing as much as possible since then.
His writing was heavily influenced by such singer/songwriters as Cat Stevens, Neil Young and many writers from the 1960's. His songs deal with everything from life in the city, the beauty of the outdoors and nature and the conflict between the two. His music has been called "urban folk" and "new folk". When playing he features original songs as much as possible but, does cover songs by other singer/songwriters. Whether playing his own songs or, other peoples songs, the common thread in all of them is they are songs with meaning. He believes in painting a picture with words and making people think. For an idea of the songs he does during his solo sets, go to his "songs" page.
While playing he met various musicians.
Among them were Dean Barnett and Tom Schlichting.
When Dean approached Mike and Tom regarding playing at a restaurant in Richmond, they agreed to do it and they started playing there on a regular basis doing songs they had done solo.
As they played the other two started adding to each others songs both musically and vocally.
The three together sounded great and thus, a group was formed.
They officially started playing together as the group "Thumb Folks" in 2003 and have played all over the thumb and southeast Michigan since then.
They have put out two CD's and continue to please audiences whenever they play.
Another musician he met was Bob Evans.
He jammed with Bob many times starting in 2001.
Together they were in a group called "RRR Gang" and did special shows twice a year for a few years.
When a date came up and Tom and Dean were not available he asked Bob and his wife Joyce to do it with him and, Tremblay-Evans was born.
This was February, 2006 and they have been doing shows together since then.
They appear regularly at the Raven Coffeehouse in Port Huron and do other shows around the Thumb area.
They have several original songs together and are working on their first CD.