Mike Agranoff is well known in folk music circles. If you've been around the folk scene, you couldn't miss seeing Mike. Tall, ginger beard, and always around where the music is. He's been on the scene for many many years, listening to the fine details of what makes this genre of music so special to the soul, so able to make us laugh and cry and think. And lucky for us all, he got serious about having fun at it.
Equally at home in the contemporary and traditional camps of the Folk world, he is a fine musician and storyteller. His prime instrument is the guitar, upon which he shines with intricate fingerstyle arrangements of anything from Tin Pan Alley tunes of the '20s to fiddle tunes to his own music. He also plays concertina, piano, banjo, or sings acapella. He can be uproariously funny, contemplative, and powerfully emotional in the space of a few minutes. Not so much a singer-songwriter as a "singer-songfinder”, Mike takes great delight in discovering the little-known hidden gems, polishing them with his own distinctive style, and bringing them to the light of day where they sparkle. The man will capture your attention, and then your heart.
Not only a performer, Mike is involved in presenting folk music as well. He is one of the prime movers of The Folk Project, New Jersey's oldest and strongest folk music organization. For over two decades he has been chairman of that organization's Minstrel Coffeehouse, one of the longest lived and most respected folk venues in the country.
GATHERING TIME has performed with Mike on many occasions. The Rock Folk group: Hillary Foxsong. Stuart Markus and Gerry McKeveny are like a high-energy Peter, Paul and Mary or a co-ed Crosby, Stills and Nash with various sounds of The Byrds, Joni Mitchell, The Eagles and America mixed in. Their head-turning harmony has been described as "getting a whole beehive-full of buzz" on the northeast regional folk scene.
"Gathering Time ... has perfected two separate but related art forms: three part harmony and having a ball on stage! When they harmonize, some sort of fundamental, cosmic concordance occurs that makes you very happy that you have ears.”
Bob McKillop, MaineFolkMusic.com
No less an authority than WFUV's John Platt has written that they are "among the finest performers in the New York metropolitan area, whatever the size of the venue, from a house concert to an outdoor festival," with "harmonies that can charm the birds out of the trees, strong original songs, and a savvy repertoire of cover songs.”