By the time Mike McAvan had settled into his business, Music on Main, in Huntsville, in November 2021, he had travelled the world as a touring guitarist, recording engineer, and preeminent sound development technician.
Crowned as ‘New Master of the Shred’, in the 2019 annual guitar competition at Coalition, a Kensington Market Hard Rock Venue, McAvan’s virtuosic display of speed, agility, melodic daring, and compositional finesse reigned over eighteen other advanced guitarists for the win. McAvan had diligently worked on his skills from the age of twelve when his cousins took him to see Ozzy Osbourne. As McAvan enthusiastically remembers, “Randy Rhodes was the guitar player at that point, and we were on his side, fairly close up. I went holy cow, I want a white Les Paul and a Marshall stack, just like that, and that’s what I want to do!”
Progressing rapidly through his teens, McAvan had already proven himself a world-class professional instrumentalist and singer in hard rock / heavy metal circles, when he entered the famed Los Angeles Guitar Institute of Technology to broaden his knowledge of performance and recording. Teachers like Frank Gambale, Paul Gilbert, Jennifer Batten, Scott Henderson, and Tommy Tedesco instilled a lifelong passion for the infinite variation of musical expression available through a guitar fretboard.
Building a foundation in recording engineering gave McAvan a distinct advantage in his thriving career, which included touring with several bands, notably Gypsy Rose, Lost In Toyland, Gorilla, and the progressive Sixes & Sevens.
“I listened to a lot of different music, trying to lift stuff. I discovered Paganini very early, trying to pick off his 24 Caprices. It just springboarded from there. When I got to GIT, it cemented a lot of concepts and techniques that I was really looking for to become an all-around, jack-of-all-trades kind of musician. So, I could go do a progressive rock thing, I could sit in with a funk band, with a blues band, a metal or a country band”, McAvan explains.
Bandwork in the heavy metal rock world demands extraordinary commitment from guitarists who continually need to master increasingly complex dexterous riffs and fluid patterns to enthrall devoted fans and followers of the genre. McAvan, incredibly well versed in metal, found himself drawn to even more innovative and adventurous styles being presented by legends such as Robert Fripp and Allan Holdsworth. “Music for me is about harmonic content”, says McAvan who has been attracted to guitarists who explore, but more importantly can teach through their compositions what they’ve discovered in their search.
McAvan became a much sought-after session player and his mastery of recording technologies was a component of his desirability as a studio musician, touring band member, and as an engineer/producer for respective clients. His work with Roland Corporation led him to extensive work periods in Japan, where he was involved with the Boss line of tone pedals and their burgeoning presence in digital tone architecture. Boss pedals are ubiquitous for electric guitarists, often defining a player’s approach and popularity.
McAvan explains his approach to tone in this insightful video with Carl Harvey of C-Notes Marketing. You can watch it below.
But thirty years of constant touring and diligent study left McAvan wanting a less arduous professional life, and with his partner, Jill Taylor, they found an opportunity to bring his various interests into one – ‘Music on Main’, located at 7 Main Street, Huntsville.
Both Mike and Jill envisioned that the venue would combine some of his passions with a full-service menu under one roof. “Think of a funky Café from Toronto’s Queen Street West district plunked in the middle of Huntsville”.
Initially, their business focused on being a café style eatery, which included guitars for sale and supplies. Like all businesses, they immediately encountered daunting obstacles with the pandemic curtailing business activity, the Main Street Road repair closures and Mike having some major health issues.
These challenges did not overwhelm Music on Main’s key vision to combine great food, music, and a comfortable ambiance under one roof. The past year, in fact, Mike and Jill have begun to provide a series of attractive music opportunities – open mic night every Thursday, from 7-10 p.m.; Karaoke Friday nights and Concerts on select Saturday nights, while operating as a Café Monday to Saturday, from 9:00 am with indoor and outdoor service.
With the Café on the main floor thriving, McAvan also offers a whole array of musical amenities. Since his earliest memories, he has customized guitars to enhance his own capabilities but also to reach for tones that stock brand name instruments typically don’t provide. A master at tone, McAvan can teach or assist guitarists in finding their own unique voice, either through refurbishing existing equipment or building from the ground up. He also does repairs and upkeep, as well as teach, record, and help songwriters through writer’s block or develop new material and he is working periodically with his band, Lost In Toyland.
Conveniently located, Music on Main is more than a one-stop music shop. It’s an inclusive, warm, engaging music experience with delicious hand-made food.
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