Mike Bones is the stage name of Mike Strallow, a New York City–based guitarist singer-songwriter who established himself as one of the top guitarists on the New York underground/independent scene for his work with Soldiers of Fortune, Damon McMahon, Lizzie Trulie, and the Mighty Flashlight.
Born in 1980 and raised in Bloomfield, New Jersey, Strallow began learning to play guitar when he was six years old, though he didn't have an instrument of his own until he was ten.
Strallow had been playing guitar with a handful of groups before he began taking his first steps as a songwriter, influenced by American roots artists such as Skip James and Hank Williams as well as the angst-filled confessions of Leonard Cohen.
Setting up at a Brooklyn recording studio owned by members of the band Oneida, Strallow's sessions included appearances by Parker Kindred of Antony and the Johnsons, Patrick Sullivan of Oakley Hall, El-P sideman Wilder Zoby, and Brad Truax of White Magic and Home; for these recordings, Strallow purposefully deemphasized his guitar work to give his lyrics greater room.
The first Mike Bones album, The Sky Behind the Sea, was released by the independent label The Social Registry in the fall of 2007.