I guess I have always wanted to be a musician from the time I was a little kid. I remember singing and playing air guitar with my friends all the time.
That changed when I was about 12 and my father got a guitar as Christmas present from my mother. My dad showed me a few chords and I was hooked! From then on my friends and I sat around trading licks and songs. I distinctly remember learning the riff from “Crazy on You” by Heart and the opening line from “Day Tripper”. Hey, what a way to try to impress girls! Around this time I also remember friends telling me that I was a good singer. We used to buy lyric magazines and sing the hits of the day after lunch in the junior high cafeteria.
My first big public performance came in my freshman year at the school talent show. I sang “Everybody's Gotta Learn Sometime” with two friends backing me up on keyboards. That week I was voted the most talented member of the freshman class (also most humorous… I was good at the junior high put down!).
In high school I formed a band with some friends that played punk rock at local dances and opened up for the popular bar bands of the day.
During this time is when I developed my secret passion for singer songwriters. Guys like James Taylor and Jackson Browne who wrote those great lyrics about love and broken hearts. The band broke up as we all went our separate ways. During college I didn't even play guitar at all for 2 years! Then my senior year I started playing at parties after everyone was drunk at 3 o'clock.
One night egged on by my friend (and future best man) I got up at a local bar and played a song that went over great. People started asking me every week so I made the plunge, bought some cheap gear and began playing twice a week. I made some wonderful friends who came to all the shows (see “Our House on my cd “Pieces of the American Dream”) And really supported me.
After graduation I decided to give music a shot full time. I scratched around for gigs and worked temp jobs to make ends meet. In 1990 a friend moved to Hilton Head, South Carolina and lined up some work for me at the bars by the beach.I was doing 12 shows a week and having the time of my life.
While I was in Hilton Head I got the chance to see great performers like Edwin McCain, Hootie and the Blowfish and Dave Matthews all play in local clubs long before they were famous. I began to write more songs and think of trying to put together a cd.
Also during this time I met my future wife while playing outside by the beach. For the next four years I tried to record my songs at different studios with different producers and engineers to little avail. Nothing seemed to click.
In 1996 I finally released an original cd titled “Pieces of the American Dream” featuring songs I had written about my various travels and people I had met. It was a great relief to finally have a recording but there were lessons learned along the way that made it less than my ideal record. I loved the songs but it was put together in a piece meal fashion that lacked continuity for me as the writer.
I continued to tour for the next two years and was pleasantly surprised at the success of the cd. I married my wife Barb in October of 1998. I released an cd of unplugged covers and originals in the year 2000 partly in response to fans who wanted a cd with more of a live show feel. At this same time I relocated to CIncinnati and began to slowly piece together a high class recording studio. I also began picking, arranging and producing songs for my current project, "Katie Bar the Door". I tapped a friend , Noel Gevers,who is an amazing songwriter for a few tunes. For the first time I used the internet as a recording tool getting musicians from around the globe to contribute parts which has been so challenging and enjoyable. The project was understandably slowed somewhat by the arrival of my two sons, Sam in 2002 and Ben in 2006. There is no happiness, however, like that of a proud parent. WHen I am not in my studio or with my boys I can be found in my garden, on the golf course or just out in the woods hiking and fishing.
