A graduate of the Peabody Conservatory. While gigging around Baltimore area clubs and coffeehouses he met up with Gary & Louise (see bio) who were known as the Lotus Duo. Hedges performed and recorded with the Lotus Duo and Lotus Band on electric guitar and flute.
As a solo artist Michael could be seen locally at Donatelli’s (Annapolis), The Horse You Came in On (Fells Point), No Fish Today, Buffalo Nickel’s, Papillon (Ellicott City), The Pub, Four Corners Inn, Wine Cellar, Bread & Roses Coffeehouse… Hedges also played as duo with guitarist Frank Schwartz (ex-Trigger Happy). With his band he performed his original acoustic rock at the JHU Spring Fair in May 1979. Members of the band included Schwartz, Scott MacLeod (guitar), and Stanley Hall (drums ex-Joanne Dodds Band, 5th Avenue Band).
In the early ‘80s he relocated to San Diego and was ‘discovered’ by Windham Hill Records and began recording a string of critically acclaimed albums. His music stretched the boundaries of acoustic guitar as he played sounds ranging from new age to jazz to pop and beyond. He was nominated for Grammy awards for two of his albums and was named on the Guitar Player Magazine readers poll as the “best acoustic guitarist” for five consecutive years. Hedges was managed by Hilleary Burgess. He played concerts at Shriver Hall on the Johns Hopkins University campus. In February 1983 he made a television appearance on the Today Show.
Record releases by Michael Hedges include:
1981 LP Windham Hill 1017 Breakfast in The Field
1984 LP Windham Hill 1032 Aerial Boundaries
1985 LP Open Air 0303 Watching My Life Go By
1987 LP Windham Hill 1066 Live on The Double Planet
1990 LP Windham Hill 1093 Taproot
In addition to his solo albums, additional cuts can be heard on many of the Windham Hill sampler albums throughout the ‘80s and ‘90s.
A CD by the Lotus Band features a couple of cuts that Michael performed on while in Baltimore. Michael performed at the 1997 Artscape Festival. He was killed later that year in an auto accident.
