AMERICAN HOTEL: Mike Brown and the Sneakies
170,000 miles, 48 states, 3 1/2 years and 42 musicians. The Funny parts is this whole thing started as a joke. Sitting here in this bar in Hollywood, trying to put almost 4 years of living on the road into a two page piece of paper. So where do I begin? Some background perhaps.

My name is Mike Brown and I’m 24 years old. I was born in Geneseo, New York, a very small town between Rochester and Buffalo. My parents are working class, Liquor store owners. Employment there is like most small towns these days, strip malls that weren’t around ten years ago, bars that never seem to disappear and the American Rock Salt Mine. Most of the people I grew up with work in the mine or one of the corporate shit holes up the street.

When I was 13 years old I found a mandolin in my grandparent’s attic that belonged to my great great grandmother (It turns out she was a performer on the Vaudeville circuit, the only musician I know of in my family). That same year I went to see Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers play up in Rochester. To say it made an impression would be an understatement...

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