About the Author

"Writing is writing," claims St. Louis native, Michael Supe Granda, "whether it's a two-line poem, a three-minute pop song, or a five-hundred page book. The process is the same. Writing a book, though, is much harder and takes a lot, lot longer." Along with having his songs recorded by luminaries, such as Chet Atkins, Augie Meyers, Walter Egan and Billy Bremner, Supe has finally put pen to paper to chronicle the thirty-seven year career of his band, the Ozark Mtn. Daredevils. This isn't the first time his words have found their way into print. Throughout the 80's and 90's, he wrote numerous essays about music, politics and baseball, which found their way into books and periodicals. His account of his foray into the political arena - when he ran for the Missouri House of Representative in 1990 - found its way into Dave Marsh's book, "50 Ways to Fight Censorship". His musical musings found their way into the Springfield News-Leader, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and the Nashville Scene. His off-beat views on baseball found their way into several official magazines of the St Louis Cardinals. "I figured that if I could string thirty, or so, 1,500 word essays about the band together, I could shape them into a book." Thus, 'It Shined'. In 1964, after seeing the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show, he traded in his boyhood dreams of baseball gloves for an adolescent guitar and a serious case of rock 'n' roll tunnel vision. At the end of the 1960s, he aimed his life to Springfield, Missouri, where he would meet and help form the Daredevils. At the beginning of the 90's, he relocated his life to Nashville, where he continues to write and record his songs, run his record label and publishing company.