Songwriter and musician Mike Mangione, along with his band The Union, embark on a new tour that will cover a lot of ground this year. For Mangione, touring has become a mainstay of his career. It is a means and an end. Touring allows Mangione the opportunity to connect with people and to try out new material, and perhaps most important, to survive. Mangione has remained an independent touring artist for over seven years. That he has maintained independence in this age of DIY and indie-model renaissance is perhaps not surprising, but that he has remained so by choice and that it has worked, surprises even Mangione himself. Now, on the dawn of his third release, Offering, the first with his official band, Mangione plans on continuing one CD, one fan, and one step at a time towards the blossoming career of a self-made independent.
About five years ago, Mangione relocated to Milwaukee to marry his long time sweetheart and to begin planning for a follow-up to his debut album released the same year. Mangione was able to arrange a live recording session with producer/engineer Duane Lundy (These United States, Ben Sollee, Yim Yames, Daniel Martin Moore, Vandaveer) in Lexington, Kentucky. He began recording his sophomore effort with a new collection of players, the band that remains with him today. Tenebrae, as the album was named, was released twice, once in 2007 just before the band embarked on a new tour, and then a second time after it was picked up for national distribution in 2008. All the while the band played non-stop on the road, often moving in oddly shaped orbits and crisscross patterns around the country.
In the years since its release, Tenebrae has outshined Mangione’s debut in both the sophistication of its sound palate and its bottom line sales. The band has sold over 10,000 units of Tenebrae alone, all without any label or major management support. Equally notable, the album has been licensed by MTV, VH1, Lifetime and Oxygen networks, GMR Marketing, real estate websites, religious websites and podcasts, independent films, and is used by internationally renowned author and speaker Christopher West at his speaking presentations. The band has played over 250 shows in the time since its release, from coast to coast, including a tour of Australia.
Following the success of Tenebrae, measured on the scale of an independent release, Mangione and band decided that a new album became not only possible, but justified as well. The release also compelled Mangione’s touring band to settle finally on a fitting band name, and as such, The Union was born. With the money earned this time from CD sales, they again called on Duane Lundy to produce their album. This spring Mike Mangione &
The Union will release their latest effort, Offering, in a newly signed development deal between Dualtone Records and their own imprint, RODZINKA Records in 2011.
Learn more about the band on the Band Bios page.
Mike Mangione & The Union is a touring group that combines a folk-rock sound with an orchestrated string section, soulful vocals and literate sensibility. The band’s previous album, Tenebrae, has received favorable press from all corners of the country, including the honor of being an All Music Guide Album Pick, while Blurt refers to their “tearstained folk, Memphis-styled gospel and bluesy-flavored pop” as “luminous.” Their new album, Offering, will be released in spring 2011.
