Michael Erlewine

Michael Erlewine
Background information
Birth name John Michael Erlewine
Born July 18, 1941
Origin Lancaster, Pennsylvania, USA
Genres folk music
blues
Occupation(s) musician, astrologer, nature photographer, TV host, entrepreneur
Years active 1950s – 2000s
Associated acts The Prime Movers, Iggy Pop, Gene Tyranny
Website Matrix Software Company

Michael Erlewine (born July 18, 1941 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania) is an American musician, astrologer, photographer, TV host, and Internet entrepreneur who founded All Music Guide (now known as allmusic) in 1991.

Background

Erlewine has had several careers. As a musician, he was active in the Michigan folk scene in the late 1950s and early 1960s. In 1961 he hitchhiked with Bob Dylan, and had traveled to Greenwich Village, Venice, California) and San Francisco.[1] He and his brother Dan founded a blues band called The Prime Movers, which regularly played Chicago; other members included "Blue" Gene Tyranny (Robert Sheff). When the drummer left, they replaced him with Iggy Pop (James Osterberg), then 18. It was the Prime Movers who gave him the nickname "Iggy", because he had played in the band The Iguanas. According to biographer Jim Ambrose, the two years Osterberg spent in the band made him aware of "art, politics, and experimentation".[1]

In 1977 Erlewine founded Matrix Software. He was the first person to program astrology on microcomputers and make astrological programs available to the astrological community. Erlewine has published more than forty books on astrology and related topics.

Today Erlewine lives in Big Rapids, Michigan, with his wife. They have four children. He is the uncle of AMG critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine.

All Music Guide

In the 1990s, Erlewine founded the All Music Guide (allmusic.com), the All Movie Guide (allmovie.com), and the All Game Guide (allgame.com). The first site in particular has become an important popular music reference that licenses its content to numerous other websites. Erlewine regained control of Matrix Software in November 2008 and continues as director of that company.

Macro photographer

Erlewine is a well-known nature photographer, specializing in close-up and macro photography, including more than a dozen books, scores of articles, an entire series of video on close-up photography and focus stacking. Erlewine is the appointed mentor for close-up and macro photography at the esteemed lens site NikonGear.com.

TV channel

Erlewine is the host on a 12-segment TV channel called SpiritGrooves, featuring topics on alternative awareness and reaching some 540,000 viewers.

Publications

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Jim Ambrose (2004). Gimme Danger: The Story of Iggy Pop.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Michael Erlewine.