Paddy Murphy's Irish Pub on 5th Avenue South - Naples Florida

Michael "Maxi" Courtney is an Irishman from County Longford. He comes from a family of musicians and has been performing professionally since the age of fourteen. Before coming to America, Maxi traveled all of Europe performing including a year spent in Spain. Courtney is an entirely self-taught musician, and didn't pick up a guitar until age 18. He moved to America in 2003 and spent 4 years in Boston playing the local live music circuit where he developed a following. Unfortunately for Maxi the New England weather didn't agree with his penchant for wearing flip flops year round so he headed south and wound up in Naples, Florida.

In a recent review by Marco News's Tiffany Yates, he is described as such:
"Courtney's one of those rare players who manages to coax great depth of sound from the instrument. Hunched over the guitar like an ardent lover, he not only plays chords and a strong melody line, but adds in melodic layers and even the occasional percussion. There's more with drum tracks, but Courtney keeps them subtle.

But maybe his best instrument is his voice. From a family of singers on his mom's side, says the musician in his appealing brogue, he's been singing since childhood. It shows in the control he wields over this tone, his sound ranging from a raw grittiness that sounds like Bryan Adams in far better shape; to a velvet croon that smoothes out like cream over gravel.

It's a voice you let wash over you; a boyish twang coming in at the ends of notes here and there, a crystalline falsetto where he needs it (as on the Fine Young Cannibals' challenging She Drives Me Crazy, which Courtney doesn't cheat down at all.

His set list is just popular enough to be crowd-pleasing, but just quirky enough to be interesting. Yeah, de does the obligatory Jack Johnson, but less Flake and more Curious George. You will hear John Mayer - but not the ubiquitous radio hits: Courtney chooses instead the instrumentally complex Why, Georgia from Mayer's first album"

Maxi went to the culinary institute of Longford. He used to be known as the "Singing Chef" in Irish circles. The singing soon took precedent over cooking. So he put down the frying pan and picked up the guitar. When Max has one too many he is known as the "nipple twister"