Mike Kear is a 58-year-old New Zealander, living in Australia for the last 27 years. He first heard bluegrass in 1968 when the great NZ band Hamilton County Bluegrass Band had their weekly prime time TV show in that country. He was immediately hooked on the excitement in the music and never stopped loving it. After moving to Australia, he joined the bluegrass society there, and soon found his way into a band, singing lead and playing rhythm guitar. One of the thrills for Mike at that time was to be singing alongside his teenage son Hamish, who used to come into the band from time to time to add harmonies, and to be the “sex symbol” of the band. Mike’s other son, Alistair is a superb guitar player and bass player, but sadly prefers Metallica and a mosh pit to Dan Paisley and a bluegrass festival stage.

Mike is also webmaster for Bluegrass Australia, a resource for Australian bluegrassers to find our music anywhere in. While Chairman of IBMA’s Pacific Bluegrass Network a few years ago, Mike made contact with Erio Meili, who was doing a similar job in Brazil, and they became friends. Nowadays, Erio sends a weekly spot in Portuguese for Mike to air in his show.

Mike lives in Windsor (AKA “Foggy Hollow”), a satellite town near Sydney, Australia, with his wife Frances, 19-year-old son Alistair, and their Australian Terrier Toby. His older son Hamish lives nearby.

Mike started doing bluegrass radio as a guest DJ on Sydney’s 2SER six years ago, in a one hour show that had been running for 16 years in the careful hands of Rod & Judy Jones. He soon found himself as one of the permanent presenters of that show for its last year. When the show ended, he went straight into his own 3.5 hour show, Music from Foggy Hollow, on Sydney’s Hawkesbury Radio 89.9FM, which continues today. Mike presents a show of mostly new releases - 80% of the show’s content is released in the last 6-8 months - with a touch of Australian bluegrass, humour and bluegrass news.

Mike welcomes emails about the show at foggyhollow@bluegrass.org.au. Feel free to request tunes, interviews, or comment on any aspect of the show. You can also view Mike’s weekly playlists.