Mike Skliar

A True Wordsmith

Mike is a prolific songwriter from New York who I discovered in February 2008 when I participated in the FAWM challenge. he writes and plays blues, folk,country and rock songs with a style that is his own. What always sticks out for me with Mike’s music is his incredible talent for lyrics.

He is very clever with words and this results in some great humor in his songs. That’s not to say he write novelty songs. He is a very accomplished songwriter, injecting something to think about to the listener.

One skill I really admire with Mike Skliars writing is his ability to take a theme and create an entire song based on recognizable phrases from that theme. For example – He has written a song where every line is a title of a Beatles song or a play on the words of the title. This year during FAWM 2010, he wrote a song with much the same approach, but this time the lyrics were based on titles and characters of Alfred Hitchcock movies.

The result is really entertaining and It is a very impressive talent. I’d love to see Mike play his songs live. Well I guess I will if we find ourselves in the same time zone!

I recommend you check out Mike’s music some more at his website www.mikeskliar.com

Check out the review of his album Ship of State