Michael John Ahern
Michael John Ahern is an Emmy nominated singer and guitarist raised on 70's AM radio and classic rock. Michael held his first guitar, a Martin D18, at age12 and was taught My Sweet Lord by the son of a West Virginia Hillbilly. Michael's teenage years were spent learning Doobie Brothers and Montrose songs, hitting a golf ball and trying to look cool, Michael also spent time seeing shows at Winterland Ballroom, Cow Palace, Circle Star Theatre and the Fillmore Auditorium. Bill Graham, aka Uncle Bobo, is one of Michael's muses to this day. Michael has been writing and performing original music since age 17. In 2007 the late Rollling Stone's Ben Fong-Torres described Michael as "a singing, picking, shredding embodiment of Americana music"
Some of Michael's career highlights include producing the music for the Half Moon Bay Art & Pumpkin Festival, performing at the Temple Bar in Dublin, being a finalist in a national songwriter competiton at the legendary Bluebird Cafe in Nashville, opening for the White Buffalo, Toad the Wet Sprocket, Sara Evans, Tab Benoit, Railroad Earth, String Cheese Incident, Charlie Daniels, Alan Holdsworth, and the Jefferson Starship.
Michael now resides in Sonoma Californa and loves his 3 year residency at the Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn and Spa performing with his best musical pal for 15 years Chris Cotruvo. Also noteable are his performances with the Rockmakers that occasionaly weave James Nash and Trey Sabatelli.into the mix.
Michael is a NAMM member, Talent Buyer and Director of Artits Integration for the Half Moon Bay Art & Pumpkin Festival and the Sonoma Golf Club Summer Music Series. Michael is a retired voting member of Grammy.com and the proud Inventor of StompLight, an innovative stage lighting and guitar pedal and company..
Michael's solo album DRIVE is a collection of blues, modern country, southern rock and Americana with the title track (DRIVE) airing on radio stations in 26 countries supported with a music video. DRIVE is also available for play in the RockBand gaming space.
Chris Cotruvo
Harold Ohashi
Early in his career Chris wrote and performed rock music in the SF Bay Area in a rock trio that made their way into the 80's LA "big hair" rock music scene. What happened next is the making of legend. Music lawyers, greed, women, fast cars, drugs, alcohol and growing tensions within the band led to the end of something very special.
Chris retreated to the pastoral seaside hamlet of Half Moon Bay to recover and to continue his pursuit of playing guitar, something he has done everyday for 50 years. Chris is as skillful in funk, jazz and country and he is in his passion... progressive rock music, with his influences Jeff Beck, Peter Gabriel, David Bowie and Jimmy Page. Chris has the rare ability to play any guitar part found on any recording.
Chris has been performing and recording with Michael since 2008. They have their 10,000 hours together and anyone fortunate to catch their duo act at the Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn & Spa will agree. In 2010 Michael, Chris and Harold co-founded the Michael Ahern Band and in 2019 after the addition of Waleed Haddad on keys they rebranded as Michael Ahern & the Rockmakers.
Harold is an extraordinary drummer who began his professional career in the Seattle 80's music scene.
In the 90's Harold relocated to the San Francisco Bay Area co-founding SF rock band Swithblade Nixon and joining the Family Club.
In 2004 Harold co-founded the Little Wheels Band, a 7-piece Americana band with Michael Ahern and Santa Cruz based songwriter / keyboardist Lachlann Kane. Together LWB produced 4 albums and toured together through 2007 playing over 200 live shows.
Harold worked with the "late" Hawaii legends Don Ho, Dick "the Giant" Jensen, "Hawaii's Lady of Love" Loyal Garner before relocating to the Bay Area from Hawaii. Harold has since shared the stage w/ Flo & Eddie and the Turtles, Joe Satriani, Jackson Browne, Robbin Ford, The Doobie Brothers, Jefferson Airplane, and James Nash of the Waybacks.
In 2010 Michael, Chris and Harold co-founded the Michael Ahern Band.
Waleed Haddad
Waleed is a composer, keyboardist, and has played with a variety of bands of different styles since the mid 70s.
Originally from Chicago, Waleed developed his skills playing in cover bands, but quickly got involved in original music, and the underground experimental music scene, co-founding bands with other musicians in the Chicago area. After moving to the San Francisco Bay Area in the early 90s, Lee quickly formed new musical alliances, and has played in a variety of cover and original bands.
Waleed joined up with Michael in 2019 bringing to the mix organ and electric piano sounds, strings and a variety of synthesizer patches, all custom programmed for each song. His musicianship, obsession with quality gear, and team-player approach completes the Michael Ahern Band’s overall sound. He is also the founder, band leader and composer of Radiograph, an original instrumental progressive rock band that incorporates elements of funk and jazz with healthy doses of improvisation in its music. Radiograph also gigs regularly in the greater San Francisco Bay Area. Lee is passionate about music, the creative process, and collaborating with great musicians.
Professionally, Lee is a physicist and entrepreneur, and has worked in academia, the national lab system, and has co-founded several tech start-up companies including Light4Sound which is developing one of his inventions in the music technology space: a programmable, drop-in replacement optical pickup for the guitar, and other stringed instruments. He holds double BS degrees in Physics and Mathematics, and an MS degree in Physics from the University of Illinois, and a Ph. D. in Physics from the Illinois Institute of Technology.
Bay Area musician Ben Levine is a bassist and music educator. After receiving a Master’s Degree in Jazz Studies from USC in 2003, Ben began to work as a touring bassist – playing many styles of music and eventually working with some of the biggest names in country music. Having spent time in LA and Nashville, and after 10+ years of near constant touring, Ben settled back in his native San Francisco Bay Area where he enjoys an active gig calendar with multiple bands as well as teaching Rock performance and history at Diablo Valley College.
Some of Ben’s career highlights include:
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Playing bass on the Grammy winning album “Guitar Heroes” by the Los Angeles guitar quartet
Playing bass on the Grammy winning album “Guitar Heroes” by the Los Angeles guitar quartet-Producing and playing on the top 10 bluegrass album “Green Day Blue Grass” by Honeywagon
Producing and playing on the top 10 bluegrass album “Green Day Blue Grass” by Honeywagon-Winning 2003’s Colgate Country Showdown as a member of the Drew Davis Band (beating out over 50,000 entrants to win the grand prize and $100,000.00)
Winning 2003’s Colgate Country Showdown as a member of the Drew Davis Band (beating out over 50,000 entrants to win the grand prize and $100,000.00)Current Projects include:
-Haulin’ Oats, Bell and Co., The Urban Outlaws, The Rockmakers, and Boombox.
Haulin’ Oats, Bell and Co., The Urban Outlaws, The Rockmakers, and Boombox.Ben Levine
