The Horizon Award: Dedicated in memory of Mike Lane
The Mike Lane Horizon Award is given annually to a scholarship applicant that shows immense songwriting potential, but has not yet realized full artistic maturity. This person is chosen by the scholarship judges for not necessarily the talent they exhibit today, but rather the promise of what their talents might become tomorrow. It is the hope of the Mike Lane Family and SAMI that this award will give the next potential amazing songwriter, a positive developmental boost.
Mike Lane
Mr. Mike Lane was born in Danville, Illinois but he spent the majority of his life (over 25 years) in the surrounding communities of Lafayette, IN. In his early musical career he performed, playing both solo and with several rock bands, including Lear Force, Shoot the Moon, and Almost Illegal. He was mostly influenced by artists such as Jim Croce, James Taylor, Tom Petty, the Eagles, Hall and Oats, Foreigner, England Dan & John Ford Coley, Smokey Robinson, and Eric Clapton but had a variety of music in his repertoire. He worked with local musicians such as Scott Greeson, Mike Kelsey, Dick Landrum, Jeff Krintz, and Dawn O’Day. Later in life he became much more involved in writing and recording his own music and was one of SAMI’s early members and strong supporters. Mike created a strong foundation of music and laughter for his family that provided an escape during hardship and instilled life principles through the stories of his music. In addition to this he involved his family in his passion for music; his wife running audio for the band while the kids were in tow during practices, set-up, and tear-down. He was a hard working, honest, and simple man who wanted nothing more than to share his passion for life through music.
His musical writings include: Lady, Snowball’s Chance in Hell, I Wanna Be the One, Red Headed Woman, and One More Chance to list a few.
Mike Lanes’ family would like to thank SAMI for the Horizon Award Scholarship. He would be very pleased to know that his love of music has had an influence in helping local musicians to further develop their talents and push the boundaries of their musical inspirations.
