Biography

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Michael McPherson has spent much of his life balancing dual careers - one in music and one in aerospace. He was born and spent much of his childhood years in southeast Missouri where he learned to play the guitar at age 12. Not even old enough to drive a car, he often found himself playing with musicians twice his age in a variety of "interesting and unusual environments". He played in local rock bands all through high school and college. Mike excelled academically in school and graduated as the valedictorian of his high school class. He accepted a full four year curator's academic scholarship to the University Of Missouri at Rolla, widely acknowleged as one of the best engineering schools in the country. Throughout his college years, Mike continued playing guitar in local rock bands and also became proficient on the bass and keyboards. He graduated from UMR with a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering but had used nearly all of his electives on music courses and became well versed in music theory. He moved to Scottsdale, Arizona in 1979 to take a job as an aerospace design engineer with Motorola.

Mike met plenty of local musicians in the Phoenix area and played in several rock bands there. The rigors of a full time career in aerospace and many nights spent playing music in bands began to take its toll and his musical interests began to turn more toward playing solo - doing acoustic guitar shows in the area. He also began to experiment with other instruments, learning the mandolin in the process. He worked at Motorola from 1979 - 1986 advancing from a junior level design engineer to senior design engineer and eventually became a task leader and then project leader on advanced programs for the US govenment developing data encryption equipment for spacecraft and terrestrial military applications.

Mike moved to Boulder, Colorado in 1986, accepting a job offer from Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corporation. His technical and management skills earned him a variety of choice assignments including work on cameras for the Hubble Space Telescope, navigation equipment for the US Space Shuttle, mechanisms for the Mars rovers and a variety of other hi-tech instruments for NASA science and US military spacecraft. He advanced quickly from senior design engineer to principal systems engineer to program manager. He spent quite a bit of time in the marketing organization where he demonstrated the ability to develop and execute strategies for winning new business. He eventually became the director of a business area that specialized in space-based laser communication equipment, space cryogenics systems, spacecraft navigation components and space qualified electro-optical sensors and mechanisms. In spite of the heavy aerospace work load which included extensive travel all over the world, he continued performing music in the Denver/Boulder area and found himself now fronting blues and rock bands as well as doing acoustic solo performances in the area. He also began to write more and soon found himself doing four hour shows with his bands that showcased his original compositions.

He finally decided it was time to record some of his songs and began looking for a producer. Bobby Barth (Axe, Blackfoot, Angry Anderson) had recently moved to Denver and was working with a few local bands including Caught In The Act (now Guild Of Ages), Wishdoctor and The Red Rock Roosters. Bobby had just built a recording studio and Mike hired him as producer and recorded his first record there with Bobby contributing a couple of compositions to the effort. Mike found himself working in the studio with seasoned recording artists including musicians from such bands as Axe, Frank Zappa, Blackfoot, Wind Machine, Warren Zevon, Steve Vai, Rose Tattoo, and Edge Of Forever. Bobby and Mike forged a strong friendship as they worked together and eventually decided to start their own music production company.

N.E.H. Records LLC was formed in September of 1997. Mike and Bobby built a new recording studio, signed several local acts and negotiated contracts with other record labels all over the world. Mike learned web programming and launched the NEH Records web site which included an online retail music store specializing in "melodic rock". They had found a musical niche that wasn't being served by the majors and the company quickly grew. The NEH Records web site began selling CDs at an astounding rate (serving 83 countries around the world at last count). The studio was booked solid with projects for Jaded Heart, Axe, Guild Of Ages, Caught In The Act, The Red Rock Roosters, Wishdoctor, Day X Day, Thana Harris, Bodragaz and Blister 66. Nearly two dozen albums were recorded there in four years time that led to a total of 29 licensing deals in the United States, Europe and Asia. The company continued to grow and expand and Mike became proficient at web site design - launching five new web sites including one of the worlds first MP3 direct download sites. In 2002, Bobby decided to move to New Orleans so he could focus more on performing. An arrangement was negotiated whereby Mike bought out Bobby's interest in NEH Records and divested the company of the studio and production functions. Now NEH Records became exclusively a music distribution and retail e-commerce business. Bobby moved the studio to New Orleans (survived Katrina) and is now touring with the Southern Rock band, Blackfoot.

At this point, the company had surpassed a million dollars in total revenue and Mike brought his wife Jeanette in as a full partner in the business. Over the next few years the two continued to successfully grow the business and finally Mike had to make a tough decision. There just weren't enough hours in the day to work at a high level management postion in aerospace and run a rapidly expanding music business at the same time. He resigned his position at Ball Aerospace in February of 2006 to devote himself full time to the music business. With more time on his hands he put together a Pro-Tools based digital recording studio in his home and now spends his spare time writing and recording music while continuing to grow the NEH Records business.

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