Michael Graham Allen began building and selling Native American style flutes throughout the United States in the mid 1970s and was a very early and prolific force in the reintroduction, refinement and popularizaton of what was at that time a very obscure and almost forgotten instrument. In 1986 and 1987 M. G. Allen introduced the North American flutes to mainstream and alternative music markets throughout the US and Europe with the groundbreaking recordings: Tear of the Moon and Night Forest. These recordings were very early introductions of the Native American style flute to North American, European and Japanese radio programs and gave millions of people their first encounter with this beautiful and little-known instrument. Coyote Oldman recordings are used in film and television programs around the world. By the mid 1990s the Coyote Oldman recordings had sold well over a half million copies. In 1995, Michael Allen introduced this instrument to the young internet with the first flute website: www.coyoteoldman.com.

Mr. Allen learned to make and play flutes without a teacher, turning instead to the actual artifacts in museums and collections around the country. M. G. Allen met flutemaker and author, Dr. Richard Payne in 1981 and developed a deep friendship and collaboration in flute building and research which spanned 23 years until Dr. Payne's death in 2004. Dr. Payne’s flute teacher in the 1930s was the well-known Kiowa elder, Belo Cozad. Belo’s teacher was Oldman Turkey in the late 1800’s.

The Coyote Oldman flutes and recordings have introduced a number of musical innovations including: tuned pentatonic, multi-keyed and bass Plains style flutes, double flutes, experimental flutes, panflute accompaniment, the first NA style flute recording released on CD (Landscape, 1988), orchestral arrangements and early exploration into intense digital effects and flowing melodic style.

Michael Graham Allen’s current projects include efforts toward the reintroduction of the Hopi and Anasazi rim-blown flutes, making the instruments available, teaching the difficult technique of playing the rim-blown flutes and releasing what appears to be the first Anasazi and Hopi flute recording, Rainbird: the Return of the Anasazi Flute.