Michael Tomlinson
House of Sky Release and Bio

 
One of the songs on Michael Tomlinson’s new album, House of Sky, elicited a touching letter of response from former U.S. President Jimmy Carter. He wrote to thank Michael for a song Michael had written about him and his years of humanitarian work around the world. The song is entitled “Seeds of Love” and is one of the cornerstones of Michael’s newest release. The entire album is filled with deeply moving and uplifting songs that are impossible to categorize by genre. To many listeners they are just “Michael Tomlinson music." Writes the long-time President of MTV and Vh1, Van Toffler, who has followed Michael’s music for more than twenty years, “when it comes to beautiful, soul-searching ballads, Michael has no peer.”

Michael’s new album was financed entirely by listeners who felt much that same way, supporters from all over North America and Europe. Last summer he launched a crowd funding campaign and invited people around the world to help him co-create “the most beautiful album of my life.” Tomlinson writes, “I felt that the only way my project could stand apart is if I could inspire people to want to be a part of something that made the world a better place.” His effort was extremely successful; raising almost $20,000 more than the songwriter had asked for. He spent the fall of 2015 in a Seattle recording studio, with several artists from around the world contributing tracks to his album, sending music files back and forth until the songs took form. This summer Michael Tomlinson releases House of Sky.

 
The album is a bookend to his very first album,“Run This Way Forever” which Michael released in the late 1980s. That album was played in a couple of dozen cities and sold over 100,000 copies on Michael’s own small label, Desert Rain. Michael then signed with a series of LA based labels, gaining one Top Ten hit with “Dawning On A New Day,” but decided in the mid-1990s to leave the chaos of the traditional music industry when he learned what he called, “an obvious-to-everyone-but-me lesson; that the Music Business was never about music.” From that time on Michael has continued to write and record in Seattle and perform concerts around the U.S. every year. He also hosts occasional retreats, called “A Gathering of Friends,” and brings together groups of people for discussion, laughter and good will.