‘Steady Eddie’ BIO

‘Steady Eddie’ is a stage name for singer/songwriter Michael Edward Thompson. Back in the 1980’s, Mike was playing drums in a popular Tampa Bay band “Dialogue”. With two Mikes in the band, there was a lot of name confusion. One day he said, “Just call me Ed”. Well, the stage name “Ed” became “Eddie”, and somehow that evolved to “Steady”, and further evolved to “Steady Eddie”.

As a child back in New Jersey, Mike played trumpet in the school bands and learned to play organ when his parents brought an organ into the home. After high school, he was inspired to learn drums. He quickly excelled at playing drums and was playing around New Jersey in rock bands, including the “Long Live The Beatles” tribute show. He also enjoyed musical theater and played percussion in summer stock theater shows including “Cabaret” and “Fantasticks”.

In the late 70’s, he was studying music at Trenton State College. It was there that he found a new love for playing piano. Although he enjoyed playing the organ, the percussive nature of the piano really hooked him. At that time, he began composing mainly instrumentals. Before long, he was venturing into songwriting with an expressive lyrical style.

He moved to Colorado in 1980 and played drums around the state for a few years with the “Buckshot” country/western band. At the same time, he was refining his songwriting craft.

In 1983, he moved to Tampa Bay Florida area and played drums over the years with a few bands including “Dialogue”, “The Shakes”, “Wranglers”,  “Midnight Ramblers”, “Band of Gypsies”, “Empty Sky”, “The Jist”, and “Liz Back On Booze”. In 1987, “The Shakes” toured Germany and The Netherlands and was the backing band for “Shakin’ Bill Akins” a top-notch Elvis impersonator.

After years of playing drums in bands, there was a need to “go solo”. ‘Steady Eddie’ began playing acoustic guitar which inspired him to keep writing songs and refine his acoustic singer/songwriter act. In November 2013, he released a 12-song CD entitled “Rays of Sunlight”. He currently performs as a singer/songwriter around the Tampa Bay area.

More recently, Mike formed a studio band called ‘Gulf To Bay Band’ with pro musicians from the Tampa Bay area including Rob Shaffer (guitar, keyboards), John Whited (bass) and Frank Dancey (drums, vocals). In March 2020, they released their debut album ‘Across The Land’. They followed this up with two more albums in 2021 – ‘Skyway’ and ‘Blue Day’.