Mike Ward is a singer/songwriter based out of Waterford, CT. He describes his music as Country Blues.

Mike Ward’s singing career began in the streets of Seattle, Washington. It was the summer of 1981.

An Able Bodied Seaman by trade at the time, Mike had left his New England home for the shores of Puget Sound with high hopes of making a pier head and finding passage on a ship bound for the Orient. When he wasn’t sitting in the Union Hall waiting for a ship, he spent his lunchtime and after hours as a busker performing for change with an open guitar case on street corners and down at the local market ”Pike Place.” Eventually he was playing gigs in some of Seattle’s small intimate coffee-shops, restaurants, and taverns. Upon returning to New England, Mike continued to play locally based in Newport, RI when not sailing coastwise from Maine to Florida.

Mike’s voice is “rich, confident and sincere…” said Laura Travis of the Providence Phoenix. This after placing as a finalist in a songwriting competition sponsored by the Rhode Island Songwriters Association (RISA). Back when he was playing with his good friend Joe Fontaine on violin, Kara Laughlin of the Sea Mass Traveler Magazine, in her Nite Life column, had this to say about their performance in October of ‘97. “The duo has fans who remember their days playing many of the now-defunct clubs in Newport like Harpo’s and the Blue Pelican. The combination of Ward’s accomplished finger picking and Fontaine’s soaring fiddle are beautiful in themselves. Add to that the confident tenor of Ward’s vocals and their poignant lyrics and it’s easy to figure out why people listened from outside the door when they couldn’t squeeze into the room.

With a repertoire which encompasses Country Blues, folk, and ragtime and influences such as Robert Johnson, Skip James, Blind Willie McTell, The Reverend Gary Davis, Blind Blake, Doc Watson and Jimmy Rogers, a unique mix of music emerges. When asked about his songwriting, Mike says that he chooses not to imitate but to instead, emulate these artists and develop a style and to find a voice of his own.

He describes his current genre as Country Blues. A selection of traditional and contemporary Country Blues as well as original compositions. After a long hiatus from performing while pursuing a maritime career and raising a family, he is now embarking on a new musical journey.

When he is not performing, Mike works as a captain on the Long Island ferry M/V Cape Henlopen, sailing between New London, CT and Orient Point, NY. He also loves to spend time with his wife Pam, five children and three grandchildren.