NEW ALBUM "HORSES & GUITARS" by Front Range Records recording artist Mike Schikora ~ AVAILABLE JULY 2012!! Mike Schikora has been in the studio working with country music group BAILLIE & THE BOYS! After his Nashville artist showcase in April 2011, Mike was approached by Michael Bonagura and Kathie Baillie of the country vocal group Baillie & The Boys, to record his 3rd CD at their studio in Franklin, TN, just south of Nashville. An interesting side note. Mike was an intern at RCA Records when Baillie & The Boys were on RCA at the time! Mike is blown away to be working with this level of accomplished and creative artists! The much anticipated CD titled HORSES & GUITARS will be released July 2012. Baillie & the Boys is an American country music group that gained prominence in the late 1980s. The band's original lineup consisted of Kathie Baillie (lead vocals), her husband, Michael Bonagura (guitar, harmony vocals), and Alan LeBoeuf (bass guitar, harmony vocals). Baillie & the Boys has recorded five studio albums and charted ten Top-40 singles on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks charts (between 1987 and 1991). The trio first found work singing harmony vocals on singles for Ed Bruce, Dan Seals and Randy Travis, and Bonagura co-wrote Marie Osmond's single "There's No Stopping Your Heart". In 1987, Baillie & The Boys were signed to a record deal on the RCA Records label. Their self-titled album was released that year, producing three Top 20 singles on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles (now Hot Country Songs) charts. Turn The Tide, their second album, was released a year later. It produced four straight Top 10 hits on the country charts (including "(Wish I Had a) Heart of Stone", their highest-charting single). "It is a real honor to be working with two amazing and successful writers, producers and artists like Kathie and Michael," says Mike. "They are definitely helping me grow as a writer and artist. Working with them is very relaxed, supportive and most important, creative! You can't help but feel this cool creative energy when in the same room with them!" Mike’s first single release is the title track of the album HORSES & GUITARS. It just lifts you out of the chair! Lyrically it is a song that defines who Mike is as a person. Musically it kicks the energy level way up! The album has a classic country rock feel to it in the songs JUST BEFORE CRAZY and SHE’S A MOUNTAIN GIRL. Mike kicks it up with a rockabilly ride in the song I’M MOVIN’ ON, then takes us on a wild blues trip his producers reference as Mike channeling Robert Plant in the song CARRY ME HOME. He is still a country boy with HEY GYPSY DADDY, a song he wrote about his friend, a fellow artist going through a rough patch. However, one of the most beautiful songs on this album is the duet YOU TAKE MY BREATH AWAY he sang with his producers daughter, recording artist Alyssa Bonagura. A rising star herself who’s recent success is performing her own song SUNSHINE in the national TV commercial for Lowes.