Patterns is a 10 song collection of groovy tunes featuring world percusuion, fever beats, pulsing rhythmn sections, and strange melodic wanderings.

In the spring of 2024, I was finishing an album of solo piano compositions. For the past few months, I had immersed myself in the creation of 12 piano études where the lifeblood of the music relied solely on the appearance of melodies unveiled as the underlying chords moved through the harmonies.

One evening, I was relaxing by watching music videos on YouTube. I casually clicked on a King Sunny Adé song and then spent the rest of the evening listening and grooving to Afro-pop artists.

I have long enjoyed the genre and greatly admire how the music, often times based upon percussionists laying down a funky foundation of unchanging percussion patterns, and rhythm sections voicing chord forms stripped bare to the essential, can frame melodies and solos in a way that hypnotizes and mesmerizes the senses.

The next morning, I set out to play percussion sounds in the fashion of the genre. Over the next few days, I kept revisiting the idea and experimenting. Before long, I found myself composing the patterns that became this album.

It took about a year for me to lay out a framework and become confident that I could produce a body of work that would form a cohesive compilation. Then I sat down and started working with focus and intent. The process, a combination of abstracted thought, experimental composition, and instinctive improvisational playing, took about six months, during which I would wake up, head straight to my studio, and play music for about five hours while my mind was clear of all other thoughts.

The playlist order presented on this album represents the evolution of my musical efforts, the personal discoveries that I realized, and the growing confidence to play and record what I heard in my mind's ear before it had disappeared and was lost.

In other words, the initial songs you will hear represent the beginnings of the project, and the later songs represent some, most, or all of what I learned.

I make no pretense to compare this music to Afro-Pop. The music that inspired me to begin the project is too unique and special. It would be foolish to be tempted by aspiration.

I hope my music will be received as unique to my character and can earn appreciation on its own merit.

I hope you enjoy this music.

Patterns is also available for streaming or download at all your favorite music sites. Search for Drive In by Mike McCue and add it to your favorite playlist.

Drive In is a song written circa 1985 by a college band, which I was a part of while attending the Florida State University. The Pilgrims played parties and dive bars during an era when punk rock and hardcore dominated the live music scene in Tallahassee, Florida. We thought it was extra special punk to have a soft ballad on our set list. The song drove the ladies wild, and the guys as well, albeit for wholly different reasons.

About 10 years ago, famed Tallahassee music producer David Murphy rediscovered an old reel-to-reel tape with multitrack recordings of this song that he made in the mid-1980s. He sent me a digitized copy of the multitracks, and that inspired me to produce a modern remake. So here it is, a song that might be from the 1950s, but is really from the 1980s, which was recorded and released in 2025. Good times! A special thanks to Dave Murphy, John Lopilotto, Neil, and Russel.

Drive In is also available for streaming or download at all your favorite music sites. Search for Drive In by Mike McCue and add it to your favorite playlist.

Stardust Melodies is a collection of twelve piano compositions written in twelve keys ranging from A flat though G.

Stardust Melodies is available for streaming or download at all your favorite music sites.

Ephemeral Vibrations is a seventeen song collection of classical compositions inspired by late Baroque chamber music, and Post Modern music written for small ensembles.

Ephemeral Vibrations is available for streaming or download at all your favorite music sites

Music for Conversations is a 12-song electric pop instrumental meditation composed of free-flowing improvisations and electro-mantra patterns. It is intended to liven the spirit, foster the imagination, and conjure stimulating conversation.

Music for Conversations is available for streaming or download at all your favorite music sites

An Indy Rocker that celebrates the tasty green mole. Play it loud!

I had been struggling to write lyrics for this song, and ended up being inspired while watching, listening, and dancing to funky sound of Bag We Bag when they performed at the Tallahassee VFW lodge. The band finished a fun filled night with an up tempo vamp they call "Dixie". A single word, "Dixie" was sung over and over and over as the music careened towards an epic crescendo. The entire audience rushed onto the dance floor, abandoned all inhibitions, and pulsed with the energy emanating from the stage. I was awe struck by the power of such a simple lyric and the pure expression of celebration. By the next morning, I had written the lyrics to "I Like Guacamole". The song does not seem complicated, but every time I hear it I think about how lucky I was to experience that magic moment when Bag We Bag transformed the room into a hot mess of good loving fun.

Available for streaming or download at all your favorite music sites

Old Shanghai is a song that was included in the musical artist Beck Hansen's Song Reader printed album of sheet music. The book contains 20 songs written in a traditional piano and lyrics style. When this album was released it was said to be incumbent on participants to bring the songs to life by performing the written music and contributing their personal style to the listening experience.

Beck and his publisher encouraged other musicians to record and sitribute the songs. This version of Old Shangjai was performed and recorded by Mike McCue. It was released on September 01, 2013.

I am not licensed to distribute Beck's song from this website. My interpretation of Old Shanghai is available for streaming or download at all your favorite music sites