“THE MIKE AND MARY SITUATION”

Put a Wisconsin farm boy and volunteer firefighter turned bestselling author and songwriter
onstage beside an East Coast Yale grad who earned her chops in FedEx trucks and Texas
honky-tonks and you’ve got the Mike and Mary Situation.
Michael Perry, the New York Times bestselling author of over 20 books including Population
485; Truck, and Forty Acres Deep (and subject of three PBS specials) has been writing songs
since the late 1990s. “First show I ever did, I ain’t sayin’ I was nervous, but I ripped out a
sixty-minute set in thirty-two minutes flat,” says Perry. He and his band the Long Beds have
toured steadily ever since.
Mary Cutrufello played her first Long Beds show in the dust of a county fair horse pull, showed
up for the next gig anyway, and has held down the lead slot for years now. A Connecticut-raised
Ivy Leaguer who earned her first record deal after scorching a trail through the Texas roadhouse
scene armed with a yellow Telecaster, a truckful of originals, and gutsy vocals, she has gone on
to become equally well-known for her fiery Midwestern roots rock and powerhouse acoustic
performances.
As a duo, Perry and Cutrufello are as at ease with the audience as they are with each other.
The songs hit directly and cleanly, the harmonies contrast like worn leather and rough-cut
lumber, and the stage banter plays like a conversation between two longtime road-wise friends
who’ve taken their lumps and their chances, whose trade is words and music but know what it is
to work a loading dock or a pitchfork, and who figure if life ain’t played out exactly as you drew it
up, you might as well laugh about it, sing about it, and get on with it.

Michael Perry is an accidental New York Times bestselling author, humorist, singer/songwriter,
amateur snow plow driver, and playwright from New Auburn, Wisconsin.
Perry’s bestselling memoirs include Population: 485 (subsequently adapted for the stage),
Truck: A Love Story, Coop, Visiting Tom, and Montaigne in Barn Boots. Among his other dozen
titles are The Scavengers (for young readers), his novel The Jesus Cow,Peaceful Persistence,
Hunker, and his most recent book the novella Forty Acres Deep. Raised on a small Midwestern
dairy farm, Perry put himself through nursing school while working on a ranch in Wyoming, then
detoured into writing. He lives with his wife and two daughters in rural Wisconsin, where he still
makes an occasional call with the local volunteer fire and rescue service. He hosts the
nationally-syndicated “Tent Show Radio,” performs widely as a humorist, and tours with his band
the Long Beds. His three live humor albums include Never Stand Behind A Sneezing Cow and
The Clodhopper Monologues. He can be found online at http://www.sneezingcow.com . Michael
also hosts a subscription audio newsletter at www.michaelperry.substack.com.