Manager Mike
One night the Denver FM radio DJ saw the Righteous Bluegrass Band by accident in Boulder and soon after became their manager.
Michael Aisner knew he wanted to be on the radio when he was 10 when his dad took him to a Chicago radio station where he sat in the corner watching and dreaming about being on the radio. “Wait, you get to sit in a room, talk into a piece of metal that others can hear in their cars and home, and play music for yourself? You can do that in your life for ‘work’?”
He spent every waking moment at his high school radio station, had several shows, got on the student Board of Directors and interviewed Muhammad Ali, Jesse Owens and Louis Armstrong. Off to college radio and the town station to play rock and then to Boulder for more college and radio, leading him to one of the nation’s first big FM rock stations in Denver. In pure happenstance he met the Righteous Bluegrass Band, detailed on this site under ORIGINS, and off they went together.
Aisner’s philosophy about promotion of any kind is simple…find something great others want to see, write about and promote and the job is easy.
But make sure whatever it is…is great!
Jaime Kibben with manager Mike
He saw how the band made people feel — and sincerely believes it’s near impossible to be unhappy or depressed listening to bluegrass (and mariachi music) and his evangelical efforts to spread their good music with this really fun band was his calling. As the band evolved through Rufus Krisp and Gone Johnson, Aisner raised the bar on achievements.
“There’s little bigger challenge, especially at 21 than juggling the dreams and lives and interests and talents of musicians in a band,” Aisner noted. “What a great sandbox to play and train in, plus the huge reward of contributing to other’s happiness watching live music and the joy of this band.” Aisner has since run the largest bike race in America, worked at United Artists Satellite Theatre Network and has a 30-year friendship and doing projects with Dr. Jane Goodall.
Aisner took the band’s Robert Anderson to his interview with Elton John on his first US Tour. They ended up giving the new star a taste of Denver and the mountains for two days, taking him record shopping and Elton and Robert bought gem rings and cocoa in Blackhawk. Elton insisted on a trip to his first adult store to harvest some magazines of all genres to add to a suitcase of kitchy trinkets like bobblehead dolls and collapsing hula dancers to take back to Britain as gifts from the New World. We poured through his stack of cassettes against the mirror in his Ramada hotel room and amongst rock and blues, Long John Baldry and Patty Labelle were the Dillards and other bluegrass!!
What? A bluegrass-loving Brit? Damn good sign he was cool beyond his awesome first album.
[R. Anderson photo]
Sadly the busy band manager would have to wait another 30 years for an iPhone!!
