Album Notes

I was lucky enough to be born into a family that loved music and we listened to all kinds when I was growing up. There was a lot of country and bluegrass on the stereo, lots of Merle Haggard and Jerry Reed, Flatt and Scruggs, and Jimmy Rogers, as well as an eclectic mix of calypso, blues, mariachi and Mexican folk music. We also played music ourselves; my older brother played guitar, my father played banjo and ukulele, and at one time my younger brother was taking fiddle lessons and my sister played piano.

When we were little kids, we had to give a singing performance to our extended family every Christmas. My old man would make us four kids practice for weeks beforehand and this was a great introduction to performing in front of people and singing with others. I started out by playing ukulele and learned a lot of great old American songs from the twenties and thirties. One of my favorite song books was called the Great American Songbook which had all kinds of wonderful old songs like Frankie and Johnny, After the Ball, etc. so I learned most of those tunes.

After my father received a banjo as a present, I started playing it and just sort of fell in love with the instrument. I really believe that the five stringed banjo can be the most beautiful sound in the world, and I started learning all of Earl Scruggs' classics like Cumberland Gap, Worried Man Blues, Foggy Mountain Breakdown, Cripple Creek and the like. In high school I played bluegrass banjo but also started listening to a lot of rock and folky stuff as well as zydeco, blues, reggae and even some classical. So my musical taste is really eclectic, but with a strong emphasis on country, folk and bluegrass and I think this is evident on the album.
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