Album Notes

Being born of goodly parents who raised me, along with my brother and sisters, on a healthy regiment of sixties music staring the Beatles, I learned early on the power of great music. After I received my first acoustic guitar at the age of ten, I developed an affinity for guitar-based music. Unfortunately my other youthful endeavors overshadowed the guitar and I became disinterested putting aside the instrument for another four years. Thankfully, at age fourteen my father, who works as the producer on my recordings and writings, introduced me to the electric guitar, a Fender Mustang. I was indelibly changed by the instrument and quickly became enamored with the many possibilities the medium provided to express oneself.

I started writing music soon after, but didn’t write seriously until I was deployed with the 28th Infantry Division in Bosnia, Herzegovina in support of Operation Joint Forge, SFOR 13. Existing in a combat zone requires that any free time be spent on base, which at the time was a Danish/Polish base, with very few options for entertainment, so I ordered an acoustic guitar and began to write songs. As luck would have it, a singer/front man, Jason Nelligan (a.k.a. Nelli), was transferred to the base and we began performing together. In the span of one month, I had over twenty songs written. Emboldened by our success performing many of the songs for soldiers providing security for our mission, and the fact that they didn’t laugh, ridicule, or worse, exact physical revenge for us wasting their time, I felt that perhaps I had a talent for song writing.

Molim is the culmination of my experiences in Bosnia and my continued collaboration with Jason Nelligan and Bud Barnes. We know that Universal Joint has something to offer musically and Molim is the first of many offerings. Thanks for listening.