Monster Mike Welch is one of Boston’s best loved blues guitarists, and at 28 years old, already a fifteen year veteran of the international blues scene. Mike’s varied career has seen him lauded as a teen virtuoso, valued as a supportive sideman, and respected as a maturing bluesman. Recent years have found Mike dividing his time between guest stints (on CDs by Sugar Ray & the Bluetones,  Sugar Ray & the Bluetones Featuring Monster Mike Welch Nick Moss, Johnny Winter, and more) and his own work in the European blues scene. Just Like It Is finds Mike returning to the North American blues market stronger than ever, with his powerful guitar and clear, soulful voice delivering eleven new originals and two covers.

Mike burst onto the blues scene at the age of thirteen, when he was publicly given the nickname “Monster Mike” by Blues Brother Dan Aykroyd at the opening of the first House of Blues club. By the time he released his first CD three years later, he had already played with blues legends like Junior Wells, James Cotton, and Johnny Copeland, and won the 1995 Boston Music Award for Best Blues Act. The rest of the 90’s found Mike touring North America and Europe, and featured in USA Today, People, Entertainment Tonight, CNN and NPR.

After 1998’s