I LOVE MUSIC. I got my first guitar for my 5th birthday, officially, it was my mom's and I had to ask to play it, but that was just a ploy to try to keep my older brother from being jealous. I was the only one who played that guitar, and I've had a guitar in my hands ever since. My early influences were Glen Campbell and John Denver, until I found rock n' roll, Boston, Styx, Kansas and others.
By the time I was a teenager I had my first electric guitar, a Lotus Strat copy and an 1981 Princeton Reverb tube amp which I still have. I also started playing 12 string guitar at church for singers and special events. But it was during this time that I learned by listening, watching, and developing the desire to write my own music. Ever since then, I have always preferred to write my own songs rather than play other people's music. However, I was too shy to sing, so my originals stayed for the most part, at home in my room as I practiced and played.
Over the years I was in and out of bands with friends, but one constant was, and still is my friend Jim. Since we were 13 or so, we've played together and made up our own songs, mostly instrumentals, and share a love for improvisation. To this day, we still collaborate on music, though over long distance since he lives in Missouri and I live here in Ohio still.
I started singing and playing acoustic versions of my originals back in 2014 and have enjoyed a steady gig at Little City Grill in Kent, Ohio every Friday up until the COVID-19 pandemic shut everything down. I still haven't returned to playing gigs out, but have not stopped writing and playing music.
Inspiration seems to come and go, for better or worse. Sometimes, I wish I didn't have so much inspiration since heartache and trouble often seem to inspire musical invention and expression. However, I love life, making music, and am thankful for the ability I do have to express myself. in music. I hope I will never lose that.
The songs I write are about life, inspired by my life events or events of friends & family.. What you will find here are my original compositions in various stages of completion...if indeed a song is ever "finished". Works in progress from the first idea captured in a rough video to versions with full accompaniment are here, with more to come, new & old as time goes on.
I'm currently based in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, near Akron and maybe 30 miles south of Cleveland. If you'd like to more, just ask.
