An Informal Musical Biography

I remember when my Dad first bought a CD player and a batch of compact discs. “Rubber Soul”, “Revolver”, and Deep Purple’s “Machine Head” showed up at my house when I was about 12. When I first started taking guitar lessons at age 13, I impressed my teacher because I knew who Ritchie Blackmore was. He taught me the solo to “Highway Star”.

After an early-nineties teenage foray into hair-metal- like when the extensions got clipped and the makeup started peeling off- I got into classic rock bands like Led Zeppelin, The Allman Brothers, and Jethro Tull. I listened to the radio back then, and heard pop-rock bands like Toad the Wet Sprocket, Blues Traveler, and REM. As a guitarist, I bowed at the flaming altar of Swedish electric guitar virtuoso Yngwie Malmsteen. Sometime in 1993 I starting collecting Phish bootlegs and learned a bunch of Trey Anastasio riffs on my guitar.

I started writing my own songs when I went to college. I listened to a ton of Frank Zappa and a bit of electric 70′s jazz. I got an acoustic guitar and started playing bluegrass. A teacher turned me on to Richard Thompson, Fairport Convention, and Planxty, and I started my first band, Single Malt Band, an acoustic three-piece which played quirky originals and an eccentric mix of folk, rock, bluegrass, and pop covers, like Berlin’s “Take My Breath Away”, which we performed as part of a three-part medley from the “Top Gun” soundtrack.

I played tenor banjo in a traditional Irish band called the Wayfarers, then made my first solo record, which was influenced by electric-Americana acts like Uncle Tupelo and Lucinda Williams. I joined a touring country-rock-jam band called Great American Taxi, and because I was the youngest guy in the band and sang like I had just gotten dumped by a girl, I got compared to Gram Parsons a lot.

Now I like the simple delivery of traditional British and Irish folk artists and the odd singer-songwriter. I like artists who are exciting with their voice and their instrument. I’d say my biggest influences are Richard Thompson, Nic Jones, Planxty, and Gram Parsons. I listen to a lot of old-time Appalachian string band music. I love vocal harmonies. I like heavy, abrasive sounds like electric guitar and drums, but only in between the vocals. I love the fiddle. I never cared much for the cello.