Shay and Michi Guess from Mantachie, Mississippi, are a dynamic musical duo, known for their diverse sound and spiritually driven lyrics. For three decades, their powerful vocals, soulful melodies, and talented band members have created music that resonates with their community and generation. Even though Shay and Michi were born worlds apart, once connected, they’ve never looked back.
Michi was born in South Korea and adopted into a US Air Force military family around the age of two. Her adoptive mother recognized her affinity for singing early on. Tragically, Michi’s adoptive father passed away when she was four, and she, along with her brother, moved to the States to live with her grandmother.
“My adopted mom told me that when we lived in Japan at the Misawa Air Base, she would take me to the shrine, and I would just be singing my heart out, disturbing the temple,” shared Michi. “Once I came to live with my grandmother in the United States, she took me to church, which was so different than in Japan. That’s where I fell in love with congregational singing and how I learned English.”
Michi’s American grandmother would teach her how to pronounce the words to traditional hymns like “Amazing Grace,” “Victory in Jesus,” and “I’ll Fly Away.”
“My grandmother also took me to Gospel Jubilee back then, and we listened to Tammy Wynette and Loretta Lynn on the radio,” shared Michi. “I would learn to mimic the singers and pronounce those words just like them, and that’s where I picked up the Southern accent.”
Michi began singing professionally at six years old and has been singing since. Shay also grew up singing in the church, in a band at the age of 14, and interested in a career in music, but it was math that brought the couple together in the beginning.
“We were freshmen in high school, and kind of playing in a band together,” shared Shay. “Michi’s family had a gospel group, and I lived about three miles up the road. I was a drummer for my granddad’s group, and started playing some for her and her family. Michi’s grandmother found that I was also a math whiz, and recruited me to tutor her, and then we both almost failed after.”
Math may have kindled the romance, but creating music together has kept their love strong for over three decades. Shay and Michi were married in 1994, and they have been traveling and singing together ever since, navigating the music industry while raising their two sons, now 17 and 23 years old.
Shay and Michi describe themselves as a husband-and-wife duo with a strong faith background in what they write and sing, but don’t box them into any one category.
“It took some time to find where our sound and style fit,” shared Shay. “We found that there’s a genre out there called Christian Country. We fit right into that because we’re not just gospel singers, we’re just Christian people who sing music. Our faith and a message of hope end up in a lot of our writing.”
In 2023, Shay and Michi released their debut album THE DAY with Dreamland Entertainment, and three cuts from the album have charted in the top 40 in Christian Country Music.
Today, you can find Shay and Michi on a Sunday morning singing at a church service somewhere in Southern America, or on stage at a weekend festival. In April 2026, you can catch Shay and Michi at the Tammy Wynette Legacy Center in Tremont, Mississippi. They’ve also been invited to apply for a showcase at the 2026 CMAs.
You can catch Shay and Michi’s latest song, “One Day Closer,” on the radio, all streaming platforms, or YouTube.
