Singing since I was a little boy…. Started in church…. Continued at home….

Played and studied trumpet in grade school from 1968 to 1972 at Saint Anthony of Padua.

While I was in high school I immersed myself in the theatre. I played the barber in “Man of La Mancha”, Snoopy in “You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown”,  Japheth in “Two By Two”, Robert Todd Lincoln in “The Last of Mrs. Lincoln” and Jesus in “Godspell”…. just to name a few of my roles.

My first band, The Buck Creek Ramblers was comprised of my mom, two aunts and a cousin or two. We played rock-a-billy, rock-n-roll, country and some popular rock of the day.

Nearly simultaneously I formed a band with some schoolmates at Our Lady of Providence High School. That band did a variety of country rock, southern rock, some Beatles and singer-songwriter (folk) material.

I’ve been playing drums since 1971. I briefly studied under Jeff McAlister in the 1980s and with James Rago at the University of Louisville in 1977 and 1991.

I studied voice under Ferenc  Gaal in 1977 and Don Everette for a time between 1990 and 1992. This was while at University of Louisville.

Of course, the list of bands… the different incarnations and combinations are too many… too many to remember … too many to list here. One band stands out for its longevity and limited, local success. Peaches reigned from 1979 to 1993. Initially we were the house band at the Hyatt Regency in Louisville. The band played a seriously wide variety of music. We had to in order to play the weddings, corporate gigs, bar mitzvahs, bat mitzvahs, Kentucky State Fair, hotels and restaurants. I am proud of the fact that we were often booked a year and a half in advance.

I have played and sung country, country-rock, country-n-western, western swing, southern rock, rock-a-billy, folk, folk rock, rock-n-roll, rock, progressive (art) rock, blues, rhythm-n-blues, soul, swing, jazz, jazz-rock fusion, afro pop, reggae, punk, pop, disco, arias and art songs, religious, gypsy jazz, contra and square dance.

While in Nashville I didn’t get to play out much. I did get the opportunity to play with Ezra Mohawk and her band which included the highly experienced bass playing of Tim Drummond. He has played with the likes of Neil Young, James Brown and Jewel.

My foray into audio engineering began with my earliest groups 40 years ago. It started on the simplest of systems, the Shure Vocal Master. From there I became familiar with mono and stereo rigs and moved on up to full, four-way, professional arrays. I dabbled in two and four track cassette audio recording over twenty years ago. I had a brief encounter with a 16 track-half inch machine not long before I moved to Nashville. While in Nashville I worked for Brantley Sound Associates for eight years. There I started as a “grunt” building stages and a “roadie”. I worked my way up to live audio engineer and eventually Operations Manager. I gathered experience in production management, warehouse management, woodworking, punching and assembling audio panels for our racks of gear.

I got to work on shows as diverse as Kid Rock and The Pope, Amway and the Presidential Campaigns of George Bush and Bill Clinton. I did festivals like Nashville’s Riverstages and The Fair of Saint Louis. I was on the touring crew for Women of Faith for two and a half years.

Once back from Nashville I bought a 24 track recorder, a full workstation. With that I continued my recording “career”. Before Nashville I had been caught on tape or by digital means for six projects… Trace, Peaches, French TV, Boris, Ube, and Dreadful Lemon Sky. I have since been captured digitally with Joe Hanna, Joel Timothy, Paul K, David Lamb’s Rose of Venus, Tina Showalter, Tyler Warden, Persuasion, Dan Dutton and his Secret Commonwealth and Michael Showalter. I also have some voice over work under my belt, most notably for a short documentary about Louisville native Martin Shallenberger.

I was lucky enough to be called upon to play drums in the back-up band for Leslie Gore during her performance at the 2007 Kentucky State Fair. She, of course, is famous for “It’s My Party”.

Since being back from Music City USA I have had several opportunities to perform on the local public radio station WFPK’s Live Lunch with four different acts. Those live dates at noon on Fridays found me playing drums for Joe Hanna, Paul K, Joel Timothy and Mickey Clark. I also got to be on John Gage’s Kentucky Homefront with Rose of Venus. That was taped, live, for WFPK and broadcast later.