Edvige Spizzirri
A Different Kind of Stage
For years, Michael Lawrence stood in front of a classroom. Now, he stands behind a microphone.
By Edvige Spizzirri
On Tuesday nights at the Peanut Barrel in East Lansing, a man with shaggy hair and tinted glasses takes the corner of the bar room and fills it with music. He books the venue himself, organizing a weekly series he calls "Tuesday Tunes" — jazz trios, Grateful Dead bands, local singer-songwriters. But on this particular night, he's the one on stage. Through an acoustic guitar in hand and a worn amp at his feet, he plays to whoever happens to be there.
Michael Lawrence performs at the Peanut Barrel in East Lansing on April 7, 2026.
A glass jar labeled "Tips Appreciated" sits at the edge of the bar, a Venmo QR code taped to its side, a humble setup. Music has followed him through every chapter of his life — from a cello in grade school, to a guitar in high school, to late nights playing coffee shops and pubs at Indiana University before he was old enough to drink in them. This side of him was put on hold for years while, naturally, life got busy, but it never went away.
A tip jar sits in front of Michael Lawrence as he performs at the Peanut Barrel in East Lansing on April 7, 2026.
This is a hobby he truly loves, and that's apparent through the way he sings. He plays a mix of originals and covers, drawing from Stevie Wonder, Al Green, Prince, and songs he's been writing and rewriting for decades. A few years ago, he stumbled across a CD in a closet — recordings he'd made and completely forgotten about from 20 years prior. A musician friend in San Diego heard them and told him they needed to be recorded properly. He agreed, and there are more songs coming.
Michael Lawrence sings into a microphone while performing at the Peanut Barrel in East Lansing on April 7, 2026.
A stack of beaded bracelets wraps around his left wrist as he plays his Martin guitar, and at his feet, a well-worn Dunlop Cry Baby wah pedal sits buried in a tangle of cables. This is someone who has been at it for a long time. He came back to performing gradually, first picking up the upright bass and joining an MSU community jazz band after his kids left the house. That led him to two collaborators — an English professor who plays drums and a historian who plays bass. The three of them formed a band, started playing benefits and bars around East Lansing, and last May released an album that found listeners across the U.S. and abroad on Spotify
Michael Lawrence plays guitar during a performance at the Peanut Barrel in East Lansing on April 7, 2026.
Michael Lawrence uses a pedal while performing at the Peanut Barrel in East Lansing on April 7, 2026.
At a corner table near the back, two people clap along between songs, smiling at each other. The Peanut Barrel crowd on Tuesday nights is a mix, but he never sought out an audience beyond whoever showed up. Even when students from his — well, that's getting ahead of things. The point is the music exists on its own terms here, on Tuesday nights, in a bar with dartboards and beer signs and people who just want to have a good time.
Audience members react during a performance by Michael Lawrence at the Peanut Barrel in East Lansing on April 7, 2026.
When the last song ends, he carefully settles his guitar into its case and packs up his set. The room empties out and the cables get wound up — the unglamorous end of every gig. He has another show to book for next Tuesday, and somewhere out in San Diego, a studio is waiting for him. What he's stepping away from to make more time for all of this, he still hasn't mentioned.
Michael Lawrence puts his guitar back into its case after performing at the Peanut Barrel in East Lansing on April 7, 2026.
His name is Professor Michael Lawrence, and for 32 years he taught constitutional law at the Michigan State University College of Law. He is the Foster Swift Professor of Constitutional Law, a former associate dean, and a published author — and if you look closely at the shelf behind him, you can spot his own book tucked among the rows of legal texts: Radicals in Their Own Time, a history of Americans who fought for liberty and equal justice. He came to MSU by way of Milwaukee, where he taught high school science, then the University of Wisconsin Law School, then a corporate law firm in Washington, D.C. He chose academia because he loved it, and he stayed because of the students. "Thousands of them by now," he said, "over the years."
Michael Lawrence, a retired Michigan State law professor, poses for a portrait in his office in East Lansing on March 16, 2026. His book, Radicals in Their Own Time, sits on the shelf beside him.
He signs a copy of his book in careful script — To: Edvige, March 2026 — the same hand that spent decades grading exams and drafting scholarship. Behind him, the shelves overflow with constitutional law texts, stacked horizontally where the vertical space ran out. He is retiring this summer as professor emeritus. His wife, also a longtime professor at the law college, retired last year. They have plans to travel and he has an album to record. "I guess we've had a long, productive, satisfying career," he said. "And now we kind of want to enjoy the fruits of our labor."
Michael Lawrence signs a copy of his book in his office at Michigan State University in East Lansing on March 16, 2026.
Books on constitutional law and politics line a shelf in Michael Lawrence’s office at Michigan State University in East Lansing on March 16, 2026.
This is him, younger — shirt buttoned, tie straight, hands raised mid-thought in front of a chalkboard while teaching one of his classes. The music was already there then too, tucked quietly alongside the lecture notes. It just took a little longer to find its way back to the front of the room.
"As I'm phasing out as a professor, I really think of myself now as a musician."
Michael Lawrence is pictured in an undated archival photo from earlier in his teaching career.