I had no intention of learning to play the guitar. But I had promised my mother I would learn because of signing up for an elective guitar class in high school, so she bought one for my 16th birthday.
I was a loner because we moved around a lot. The guitar quickly became my best companion. I would stay up until 2:00 or 3:00 a.m. playing it. And from day one I made up my own compositions.
Being that I was a teenager, I soon migrated to the electric guitar. I wanted to mimic the hard rock music I was into. I actually became an excellent rhythm guitarist and this got me into a number of original rock bands. Yet there remained a love for acoustic guitar music that was inadvertently introduced to me by a sister listening to her Crosby, Stills & Nash and Neil Young records . . . before I even learned how to play.
Those band days lasted only about five years. I never became known on the music circuit though. The bands I joined rarely went beyond their local playing area. And I was still a loner; I didn’t hang out with musicians up in L.A. or Hollywood. I never met or knew anyone famous. I did however play in a band with Robert Sweet – best known for being the drummer of Stryper. Then came a two year break due to the crush of fleeting fame. It came close and the band broke up. I never played in a rock band again.
I resurfaced as the rhythm guitarist in a Praise & Worship band at a church I began attending. I had become a Christ follower at age 17 but only got serious about it in my mid 20′s. I spent three years in this group. It’s here I learned music can be a healing affect in the heart, body and mind. I would not trade this experience for anything.
Around 1989 I again dropped off the musical landscape. In fifteen years of being a musician/songwriter I had failed to become “someone”. I was disappointed. I sold all my performing and recording gear, keeping only one acoustic guitar. Another two year hiatus began . . . another dry spell.
By the mid 90's I was a lead guitarist in my most favorite band to have ever been in, Purple Mountain Matinee. The decade ended with me leaving PMM and once again disappearing from the musical landscape.
In 2004 I began exploring alternate tunings after having listened to – over and over again – the Guitar Passion album by Dallas Gordon. This one album inspired a return to playing, composing and recording my own music. And I found a more proper place and expression in being an instrumentalist. In 2006 I recorded my first album, ‘Clearly‘, under my own name, thirty-two years after first learning how to play the guitar. At 48 years of age I determined, finally, music would have a more prominent place in my life.
I’m just a normal guy that happens to play guitar and compose instrumental music . . . which I hope will enable you to escape the noise and enjoy some quiet moments.
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