“Keep Living Til I Die” out August 8!

On Keep Living Til I Die, renowned blues guitarist and three-time Blues Music Award winner Monster Mike Welch reteams with producer Kid Andersen to deliver searing guitar and impassioned vocals on a set of original songs and covers of Robert Johnson, Aretha Franklin, and Bob Dylan among others, exploring themes of life, death, love, joy and heartbreak.

With over three decades of touring and recording under his belt, Boston-based blues guitarist Monster Mike Welch is a seasoned veteran of the international blues scene. Given the nickname “Monster Mike” by actor/Ghostbuster Dan Aykroyd at the tender age of 13, Welch has since carved out a niche as a highly accomplished and in-demand guitarist. To date, Welch has released several albums under his own name and in 2001, he joined the ranks of one of New England’s most beloved blues institutions, Sugar Ray and the Bluetones, where he stayed until 2017, recording five albums and racking up multiple Blues Music Award nominations for the band in that time. In addition, Welch has recorded with Shemekia Copeland, Ronnie Earl, Danielle Nicole, Duke Robillard, Johnny Winter, Victor Wainwright, Nick Moss, the Mannish Boys and Sugaray Rayford, among others. Welch left the Bluetones in 2017 to focus on his partnership with Mike Ledbetter, which led to seven Blues Music Award nominations and the formation of the Welch Ledbetter Connection within the first year. Welch has received three consecutive Blues Music Award nominations by the Blues Foundation for Instrumentalist-Guitar beginning in 2016, a Boston Music Award for Best Blues Act, and is an inductee of the Rhode Island Music Hall Of Fame. In 2023, Monster Mike Welch embarked on the next phase of his career when he released the Blues Music Award-nominated Nothing But Time. 2025 sees the release of his most personal album yet, the searing Keep Living Til I Die.

Keep Living Til I Die Album Credits and Track Listing

Produced, recorded, mixed, and mastered by Kid Andersen at Greaseland Studios, San Jose, CA

Monster Mike Welch - vocals, electric and acoustic guitar
Brad Hallen: electric bass
Brooks Milgate: piano, organ, Wurlitzer, clavinet
Fabrice Bessouat: drums and percussion

Lisa Leuschner Andersen, John Blues Boyd, and MMW - background vocals on "I Just Don't Understand"

Marcel Smith and Dennis Dove - background vocals on "The Whole Idea of You"

1. Keep Living Til I Die (Mike Welch/Nick David)

2. Love Me Baby (Mike Welch)

3. Your Problem to Solve (Mike Welch/Nick David)

4. Good To Me As I Am to You (Aretha Franklin/Ted White)

5. Hell Hound On My Trail (Robert Johnson)

6. I Finally Hit the Bottom (Rick Estrin)

7. Do What You Want With My Grave (Mike Welch)

8. She Makes Time (Mike Welch)

9. Dear Landlord (Bob Dylan)

10. I Just Don't Understand (Marijohn Wilkin/Kent Westberry)

11. Some Other Guy (Jerry Leiber/Mike Stoller/Richie Barrett)

12. The Whole Idea of You (Mike Welch)

13. Burial Season (Michael Ward)

FOR MOM