Ever since I can remember I have been fascinated with the guitar. I remember watching the old Johnny Cash Variety Show…the way Johnny opened the show with his guitar slung over his back, also the old Hee Haw Show with Buck and Roy.  Those early influences are still with me today.

      My first guitar was a “Stella” Harmony acoustic that my Mother bought me at the age of 11, after a lot of begging and pleading, due to the fact that I had bragged to my classmates and teacher that I played the guitar and was then asked to bring it in and play for the class…Oops!  I quickly learned a few chords and about a week later rocked the 5^th grade class with “Puff the Magic Dragon.”

     The first time I played on a stage was at the tender age of 15 while living in the U.S. Virgin Islands. By this time I had worked my way up to a “Sekova” electric, an awesome looking Jap guitar with more switches and knobs than a space shuttle and 3 wing nuts replacing the broken tuning keys. Anyway, I used to sit in with a local calypso singer named King Marrow, at a little tourist bar in St. Thomas and strum along.

     After a few months of strumming with King Marrow, and sometimes actually playing the right chords, I started jamming with some local kids doing mostly Stones and Beatles.  I returned to the states and quickly began jamming with friends, and finally got my first real guitar, a 1968 "Gibson SG Custom" with 3 humbuckings and all gold hardware. Within a few months I joined up with a local band, got a fake ID, and started playing clubs; doing covers from Aerosmith to Led Zeppelin.

     I continued with a number of local rock cover and original bands through my late teens and early twenties, and then one day I heard something that changed my life, “Highways & Heartaches” by Ricky Skaggs, or to be more specific “Highway 40 Blues.” I remember staying up all night (literally saw the sun come up), wearing out the rewind button on my cassette player trying to learn those licks. That opened a lot of doors and a whole new direction for me; “I wanted to play like those guys!” I began listening to a lot of new and old country guitar players and hanging out at the local honky tonks, and eventually started playing with some of the local country bands. I still may not be able to play like “those guys”...but I’m still trying!

     In addition to performing, I have done some writing from time to time and have had several tunes under publishing contract and pitched around Nashville. A few of which were held for consideration by major artists such as Diamond Rio.  One cut I did achieve was a song titled “I Still Do” which reached the top 10 on the UK Indie chart in Europe…(I know…wow!)

     I have had the good fortune to play as an opening act for many headline performers such as:

    And have backed such artists as:

                                    David Houston
                                    Jean Shepard
                                    Hank Thompson

    Main Guitars: 

                                    2000 MIA Thinline Tele
                                    1997 American Standard Tele
                                    2000 Fender American Texas Special Strat

    Main Amp:

                                    1989 Peavy Stereo Chorus 200

    Bands: (chronologically)

                                    Zoro, The Generation Gap, Easy, Sun, Hazy Boy, Priscilla Harriet Band, Ruffian,
                                    Back in the Saddle, Real to Reel, Sage, Eagle Creek, Tim Gillis Band, 519 South,
                                    The Cramer Brothers Band. (I'm sure I have forgotten some that I should have remembered…
                                              and remembered some I should have forgotten!)

     Influences: (chronologically)

                                    Eric Clapton, BB King, Dwayne Allman, Bobby Hartnagle, Roy Buchannan,
                                    Stevie Ray Vaughan, Ray Flack, Albert Lee, Roy Nichols, Brent Mason.

                                               
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