When people ask me where I am from there is never a delay in my answer.  I’m from Georgia.  I grew up in Dalton but finished high school down in Valdosta and then stayed there for 4 or 5 more years.  I also lived in Rome and Cartersville and Milledgeville.  Growing up a drummer, I didn’t begin playing guitar until I was 20 years old.  I had been in bands playing classic and southern rock and roll since I was 14 and had most recently been playing in a jam-band, Daddy, that had begun doing an Old and In the Way/Garcia- Grisman show also under the name Mad Dog Ike and the Oatmeal Stout Pickers.  After attending the Sunshine Daydream Weekend (later to be named Springfest) in Live Oak, Florida, I became interested in playing bluegrass guitar.  The show was centered around a reunion of the remaining members of Old and In the Way after Jerry Garcia had passed. That year I got a Fender acoustic guitar from my girlfriend for Christmas.  I continued playing drums (and still do) but all of my practice time went toward the guitar.

I moved from Georgia to Alaska in 1998 and was fortunate to find a supportive musical community in Fairbanks that helped shape the guitar player that I have become.  I was blessed to be able to literally sit at the feet of Carl E. Hoffman and absorb the style of rhythm guitar playing that he had cultivated in his over 40 years of playing bluegrass in Alaska.  It was also a blessing to find so many musicians of all skill levels willing and ready to play just about all of the time.  In this diverse musical environment I quickly began gathering sounds and styles from countless musicians.   In learning to play bluegrass I realized that the country songs I grew up hearing in Georgia were so enmeshed in my mind that I could recall the words and play most of them fairly effortlessly as well.  Blues music also became an influence on the music that I would write due to the impact that my musical mentor and friend, Josh Reuther, had on my repertoire.

From the very beginning of my learning to play I wrote songs about my own experiences.   I write songs about my personal life experiences and  frame those experiences in simple musical styles that I refer to as Rural Roots Music:  country, blues, bluegrass, folk, old-timey, Americana.  There are many people through the years that have made an impact on the songwriter that I have become either through their music or just through our relationships and experiences.  I hope that it is all present in my music.  I released my first cd, Appalaskan Folkgrass, on a shoestring budget with assorted members of 2 bands in Fairbanks (Clarke County and Moonshine Run).  It was basically a jam session at 10th Planet Studios featuring songs that I had been writing for the preceding 3 years.  I stand behind what we accomplished on that cd and am sort of amazed that I put it all together and got it out having only been playing guitar for a few years prior.  Since then I put together several bands (The Blaze Kings, Gub’ment Cheese, The Transfer Site) that showcased my original songs ranging from string bands to rock bands with me playing guitar or drums.  I continued to go to 10th Planet Studios and record new songs over the years but never felt compelled to release anymore cd’s until I could go about producing them in a proper manner.  As a result, I have a catalogue of about a 75 songs that have never been heard anywhere except at my live shows.

In March of 2012 I sold my house in Alaska and moved back to Georgia to be closer to family.  I immediately began playing with a new rock and roll/ Americana band, The Bourbon Triumvirate, that is built largely around what I consider the strongest songs I have written.  I also began doing studio work in Cleveland, Tennessee with the Chattanooga based bluegrass band Barefoot Nellie and Company. My return to Georgia has given me new inspiration and I look forward to collaborating with many of my musical friends that I have been away from for so long.  For me, that is the best part of playing and writing the kind of music that I choose to create.  When you can come together with friends or strangers for that matter and find commonality in the music that you play and be able to share ideas and experiences through that music, then you have stumbled into one of the purest most genuine methods of communicating.  That is what motivates me to continue playing music and writing songs.

Through the years I have been fortunate enough to open for or share the stage with:   Verlon Thompson, Robbie Fulks, the Foghorn String Band, Tim Easton, Blueground Undergrass, Gene Libbea,  Nora O’Connor, Keller Williams, the Stranger Stringband, Leftover Salmon,  Hot Tuna’s Barry Mitterhoff, Carl E. Hoffman, and  more Alaskan bands and musicians than I could list here.