Mickey McGivern was born on December 13th, 1931, in Pembroke, Ontario. His youth was filled with music and by his pre-teens, he began to play guitar and sing. At age twelve, Mickey got his first guitar; an inexpensive, beaten-up Palm Beach acoustic guitar. Mickey was hooked from the get-go.
By the age of fifteen he was showing serious talent and by the age of seventeen he was on the road with "The Kidd Baker Show." From here, he began a long and storied career in the Canadian music industry. He joined Kidd Baker's touring band "The Pine Ridge Mountain Boys" officially in 1950.
He performed all over Canada during the next few years, eventually settling briefly in Toronto, where he formed his first group "The Golden River Ramblers." The success of his first group eventually landed Mickey his own radio show at CHOV in his hometown of Pembroke.
As the 1950's became the 1960's Mickey really came into his own (musically speaking). His band "Mickey McGivern & The Mustangs" worked extensively on the Toronto club scene. They became the house band at the famed Edison Hotel, where they backed Nashville touring stars such as Dave Dudley, Mel Tillis, Del Reeves, Stonewall Jackson and many others. When one of Nashville’s top stars of the day, Johnny Paycheck, played Toronto, Mickey McGivern and Paycheck struck up a friendship that resulted in Mickey going out on tour with the Paycheck entourage.
The relative clout Mickey had amassed from headline and support gigs with his various groups, would bring him to the attention of multiple Toronto based labels during the early 1960's. Quality Records got to him first, then RCA, then ARC Records. ARC would be his main stomping grounds over the next twenty years, recording over 250 albums for the labels local talent and visiting Nashville roster. In addition to this, he recorded and released four albums of his own on the label, including a fifth album for Jack Boswell's Paragon/Marathon Records in 1973.
The roster of talent Mickey has recorded with included D**k Nolan, Jimmy James, Dusty King, Irwin Prescott, Freddy McKenna, Red Sovine, Donna Darlene, Ramblin’ Lou Shriver, and many more. At the time, Mickey McGivern was the “first-call” guitar player for the hundreds of albums produced in Toronto studios by Ben Weatherby.
Mickey is a particular kind of unsung hero in Canadian music. From the early 1960s through the mid 1980's, he was in high demand as a session guitarist, but received almost no recognition from the record buying public. He became, by default, a musicians-musician; highly respected, a consummate professional and a mentor to those in his band. He was definitely in contention for the “most heard” and “least credited” musician on the Canadian country music scene during this period.
On tap for today is a live album he recorded for ARC Records in 1966. "Live At The Edison" with his band "The Mustangs." This album represents an important historical event in Toronto's music scene of the 1960's. From this place and time, very few (official) live albums have been released by bands of any genre. I hope you enjoy this rare treat.
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