Music
The best kept secret in music
Press
This band has no press
Discography
"Take a Bite Out of Life" is newly released. I am hoping to get the songs out to the world via radio, internet and live gigs. I need to do this. I believe I have a handful of potential hit songs on this recording. For example "Paper Hat Soldier" is a song every parent of military personnel will want to hear. The song "Bungled Bank Robbery" I am glad to say has achieved radio airplay. I am trying to pursue all avenues to promote my music.
Now there are other CD recordings I have done and they are: Music by the Masters, which is a number of classical guitar pieces.
Cherry Sunset: Songs and compositions inspired by the 1909 Cherry Coal Mine Disaster which took 259 lives.
Spirit of Guitar: Fingerpicking on Nylon-string guitar many of my own compositions along with some by Chet Atkins and jerry Reed.
Photos
Feeling a bit camera shy
Bio
Having studied Classical guitar for many years, I have a firm foundation of fingerpicking. Later I discovered the genius of Chet Atkins, Leo Kottke, and Jerry Reed. This style I coupled together into all my previous studies through the years. Including rock artists such as Paul Simon, Jim Groce, Led Zepplin, Fleetwood Mac and Kansas to name only a few. I like to arrange tunes by adapting an energetic fingerpicking technique.
What makes me different, I would say is my own style merges from the melting pot of so many other styles. I think that is how we become different. My voice, my touch, my tone, my demeanor and my original compositions reveal something new.
My earliest childhood memories involve music, from singing on the swing set as the happiest little boy in the Illinois, to watching my Dad's band perform on weekends. When I was ten I got a guitar and I have not put it down since. In Highschool we formed rock bands, learned the hits, played gigs. I began fingerpicking about the age of 15.
Our family moved to Las Vegas in 1981 and I again became involved in bands but also began a serious study of fingerstyle technique. Enrolled at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas I studied music theory and composition among other related subjects. I was performing both as a soloist and was also in a rock band. Many shows, both solo and with the band, radio spots, TV, hotel and casino gigs toward the end of my stay in Vegas.
I was then homeward bound, back to Illinois in 1997, jumping with a leap of faith into small town America again. It allowed me to focus and a great number of projects, mainly writing my Guitar Journey teaching method and songwriting.
Being a history buff and model builder too, I built two large permanent displays for museums. This was a hobby for me which really gobbled up a great deal of time. It is a whole different story.
My musical life today involves performing solo gigs, teaching guitar, and distributing my Guitar Journey Books. My latest music project is, "Take a Bite out of Life", a collection of songs in the works for over three years. An output I am very proud of and am joined by my brother kevin on drums. I forgot to mention he was in a few of the bands I was also in back in vegas. We have alot in common, we both live and breathe music and we both have a eye disease called retinitis Pigmentosia. It really limited our vision, and that is an understatement.
But I am so happy to have created this new CD with him. It started out as an acoustic solo endeavor but turned into a great big sound! I play all the instruments except for drums. Well, that brings us up to date!
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