Mike Stokes started the band in sixth grade with members of his schoolmates at Mounds Park Elementary in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Mike was playing the piano at the time, and I (Greg Hartman) played the alto sax. Later on Mike switched to electric guitar, and his older brother Butch (Hyland) played the keyboards.

As an aside note; The entire history of Michael’s Mystics is marked with numerous changes in personnel. There is no intention of slighting any of those band members. It’s just that for economy of space and time I choose not to list each and every one. I know that they all contributed their own special abilities, which made the Mystics continue in popularity. Looking back, it seems that Mike, Butch and I stayed on as other members continued to change.

We continued to play local gigs and parties through grade school and our freshman year. Our biggest break came when we got a gig working the State Fair through our manager Don K. Martin, who was a disk jock at K.D.W.B. radio station. They had a section at the Fair that was called the Teen Fair. This was an area where the local instrument retailers and radio stations were promoting their business, and several areas had stages put up for performance of the local bands. I’m not ashamed to say the kids there were knocked out by our sound. All of the people working in the booths were also impressed. 

The band worked a lot of gigs after that. Because people from the age of 18 to 21 didn’t have places to go and dance, several teen clubs were created. All of those had live music mostly provided by local bands. This was before disco. We played some school nights, and almost every weekend then. A little later on, we were playing every night of the week except Monday.

As a horn band that played soul music of the time, we fronted several big name acts in arena venues. Three that I can recall are: Wilson Picket, Aretha Franklin, and the Average White Band. I think Butch could remember others. The Mystics played at all kinds of jobs, from smelly bars to private parties. We performed in fancy hotels and in nightclubs. We even did some freebees for the musician union, on outdoor stages, in downtown St. Paul. We also performed in the ballroom circuit all over Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Iowa. I hated the gigs we did in Chicago, but I loved playing in Miami.

Although this band is not remembered for the records it produced, (Hi Bird, Pain) we always put our own stamp on the songs we covered on stage. This is only a little bit of the history. There is much more to tell, and important people that are not mentioned. I only hope other band members will tell their story for others to read.