Mike Clem, a multi-instrumentalist, has been actively playing Irish Trad music for over 25 years. He began playing guitar when he was barely old enough to hold one, and like any burgeoning guitar-slinger of that era, he grew up emulating the great guitarists of the British Invasion. Throughout the 1970s, he toured extensively with various unknown rock bands. As time marched on, Clem found himself playing in jazz and Dixieland combos, big bands, Broadway pit orchestras, even subbing in a couple of country bands and dabbling in bluegrass. Sometime in the late 1990s, he fell in with a bad crowd who were hanging out in the back corner of an Irish pub. They were drinking dark beer and playing some of the most wonderful music he
had ever heard. Over the next several years, Clem had picked up the Irish whistle, mandolin, Irish (tuned) tenor banjo, and switched his guitar tuning to DADGAD. During this time, he
studied extensively with guitar master Nigel Tufnel. Over the last 20 years, he has performed at numerous Irish and Scottish events in the southeastern U.S. He is very active in Irish Session scenes in Huntsville, Birmingham, and Nashville, occasionally venturing further afield. He has composed a number of Irish dance tunes and has compiled seven books of common session tunes (working on #8). In addition to the instruments listed, he also plays (jazz tuned) tenor banjo and tenor guitar.