Album Notes

. I was born and raised in Danville, VA. I attended Virginia Tech University where I graduated with a degree in Civil Engineering in 2004. Upon graduation, I moved to Sarasota, FL where I worked for the last 7 years for Sarasota County Public Works. When I was 14, I awoke Christmas morning to my first guitar, something I had wanted since I was young. I had been singing in church since I was 6, but was longing for an accompaniment to my voice. Deep in my heart was also a desire to write and tell stories as a means to communicate the Gospel. I married my college sweetheart, Mary, in 2006. She is a middle school math teacher here in Winston-Salem, NC where we have recently relocated to. I currently adjusting to my new job with the City of Winston-Salem Transportation Department in addition to writing, recording, and playing live concerts and shows as often as the opportunity is available. In 2009, I was blessed to have the opportunity to go to Nashville, TN and record four of my songs with Christian singer/songwriter Jeremy Casella and some of the finest Christian musicians in the industry. That CD, “Grace – The EP”, shows more than anything else the heart of what I try to do as a songwriter. I'm also preparing to celebrate the release of my new EP, "It's Better Out Here", which is coming in August 2011.

God's grace is a fascinating reality to me. Its depth and height and breadth are so enormous that it can reach out and save someone like me. When I look at my life and consider my own struggles, my depravity, and the way that I fall time and again, I long to cry out as Paul does in Romans 7, “O wretched man that I am!” Yet, it never ceases to amaze me how God not only saves us by His grace but He also uses us to share that grace and that love with the world around us. Whether it's the depths that our sinful flesh take us to or the peace and comfort of being sheltered by the God of the universe, the grace of God is the heart of the stories I try to tell in my songs, all of which, I hope and pray, tell The Story of the redemptive work of Christ.

The songs on "It's Better Out Here" stem from a time about 5 years ago in my life. The stories talk about the hope of salvation from the redemptive work of Christ, the despair of life lived apart from that salvation, and how much I missed my family and the places of my childhood while I lived in Florida. I hope you will find the EP to be a personal and real collection of stories and songs.