Mike Slaton starting picking and singing after his parents snuck him backstage on his fifth birthday to meet Willie Nelson after a concert in Shreveport, Louisiana. He immediately got ‘bit’ by the ‘music bug’ and gave his first live performance at his kindergarten talent show, singing “On The Road Again.” Born and raised in Greenville, Mississippi, Slaton lived in Nashville five years before moving to North Carolina to write and perform while working as an organic farmer. He moved back home to Greenville to be close to family and the ‘long, dark, complex memory of the Delta that inspires me and feeds my soul.’ His warm and poetic songs are influenced by meaningful experiences with his family and friends in the here and now and the memories of ancestors left behind and fall comfortably in the musical realm of Townes Van Zandt, John Prine, Steve Earle and Gillian Welch. Slaton has released multiple solo acoustic recordings of his original songs, along with a six-song EP recorded with his band The Wheels in Wilmington, North Carolina. He has opened for the Avett Brothers, Lucero, Chatham County Line, Col. Bruce Hampton, Cary Hudson, and T-Model Ford. Currently, Mike Slaton is focusing on writing and completing songs to record and release a record inspired by his home state of Mississippi.