Who?

Ed Kliman's quirky career has taken as many twists and turns as his discography, starting with his birth in an Army hospital and leading to his current home base in Austin, Texas, writing music for Shakespeare productions around the world and singing American roots-based music as if his life depended on it. Along the way, he has been a professional writer, run a blues bar, recorded voiceovers for national radio ads, produced audiobooks for children, appeared as a professional actor in numerous plays, served as the house band for a competitive BBQ team and lived through enough miles and midnights for any three people.

Years of blue-collar touring as a working musician "playing everything from television to turkey shoots" behind him, he moved to Austin, Texas in 1989 after time spent in Chicago, New York, Louisville and New Orleans. Working under the name Ed Michaels, he fronted 9 and 10 piece R & B bands with horn sections and released several recordings on now-defunct indie label Criminal Records. A shift to more intimate, personal songs and acoustic performances under his own name resulted in the CDs Resonator and Download These Blues on his own Texas Music Forge label, which brought him a Best of 2002 award from Revolver Magazine.

After taking time out to build a house and tend to a family, he began working with professional theatrical companies in Austin in 2006, writing and performing music and earning an Austin Critics Table award in 2007 for his music for theatre. He has, since then, been a resident composer and musical director for professional Shakespeare theatre companies in the US and Europe and resumed making acoustic-based solo recordings and performances.