Finding salvation in music, gospel singer
Mike Farris has not only healed himself, but has touched the lives of millions of music-loving worshippers as well. Born in 1961 in California, Mike Farris experienced a broken home life in which his parents divorced when he was eleven years old, leaving him shattered. Soon after, Farris began using drugs and alcohol and almost died from an overdose before he was 21 years old. He recovered and moved to Nashville, where he went on to form the group Screamin' Cheetah Wheelies, a blues rock band, in 1990; they released three m
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ajor-label albums and had sustained success on the U.S. rock charts in the 1990s. After their breakup, Farris sang with SCW, Peaceful Knievel, and with
Double Trouble, the former backing group for Stevie
Ray Vaughan. Farris became a practicing
Christian and rejected drugs and alcohol, and released his first solo album in 2002. 2007 saw him release his second solo effort, the strongly Southern-influenced Salvation in Lights, on INO Records. A traveling tent revival of an album, Salvation Lights was recorded with a band that included Johnny Cash's longtime bassist
Dave Roe, singer Ann McCrary - daughter of the Fairfield Four's founder, the Rev. Sam McCrary and a host of top shelf Nashville musicians. The album contains Farris’ take on classic worship songs like "Oh Mary Don't You Weep" and "Can't No Grave Hold My Body Down, while "
A Change Is Gonna Come" and "
I'll Take You There" come from a soul movement that identified with struggle and the ongoing search for transcendence and peace. The album also contains a generous compliment of songs that are turn-of-the-century New
Orleans Gospel. “Something about that music, it moves me like nothing else," Farris has said. His fans are equally moved by Farris’ great talent.
