Michael Shay was born in Austin, Texas, and was raised on a healthy diet of music. As his mother was a piano teacher, and his older sisters string players, Michael absorbed the sounds and structures of classical music on a daily basis until he finally started taking piano lessons at age 8. Taking up the cello when he was 12, he played in a number of chamber music groups and orchestras through high school. But by then, he had taught himself guitar and bass guitar, and soon left classical music behind for a number of years. He was primarily a rock bass player until the cello proved itself to be even more versatile, and rare, in the world of popular music. Michael quickly became known for his improvisational abilities on the cello, and began playing and recording with numerous artists, such as Libby Kirkpatrick, Geoff Union of the Two High String Band, and Will Taylor and Stings Attached. With Geoff, Michael formed the Americana duo Alive and Well, recording an album entitled "Life Is Short". This act played until Geoff began touring full-time with the Two High String Band, and Michael began performing regularly with Libby Kirkpatrick.

Interspersed with these musical projects, Michael traveled extensively, both within the US and abroad. It was through these travels that he distilled his wide variety of musical interests into a body of songs through which he has been exploring his deepest love, that of singing and songwriting. He spent two years working on a recording project that became the album "Lines of Darkness, Lines of Light". The album was quite an undertaking, as Michael played many instruments on it as well as producing and engineering the entire CD himself. With guest appearances by friends Billy Bright, Bryn Davies, Geoff Union, Libby Kirkpatrick, Eleanor Whitmore, Anais Mitchell, Alex Coke, Idgy Vaughn, and others, the album became an open exploration of the compositional potential of the songs that Michael had been writing.

Upon the album's completion, Michael formed the Michael Shay Band, and has been performing primarily with this electric group since then. In this band, the songs continue to grow and evolve through the collaboration of the amazing players in the group: Alex Coke (saxaphone/ flute / bass flute), Doug Marcis (drums), Elizabeth Suggs (vocals), Wayne Sutton (lead guitar, vocals), and Steve Zirkel (bass, trumpet, vocals). Four part harmonies and a diversity of styles are the hallmarks of this energetic band. Michael also tours around US regularly, presenting both acoustic and electric concerts, often hiring the best local musicians he can find in whatever town he is in to back him up.

Michael contributed music to the Academy Award-Nominated film "Become the Sky", and has played with Eliza Gilkyson, Carolyn Wonderland, David Amram, Johnsmith, Jonathan Byrd, Anais Mitchell, Brian Joseph, Libby Kirkpatrick, Zoe Lewis, Zilla, Kacy Crowley, Nathan Hamilton, Paula Nelson, Rachel Ries, Idgy Vaughn, Stanley Jordan, Trish Murphy, Two High String Band, and more. He also teaches composition, theory, improvisation, guitar, cello, and bass to students of all ages, and produces and engineers recordings for musicians of all kinds.