New CD out in 2021!
Welcome to my website! I play acoustic guitar, mostly instrumentals, and the occasional song. I use numerous open tunings in C, D, and G. My first CD "The Landing" was released in Aug 2011. I am currently recording my second CD.
During the 60's soon after the assassination of JFK my sister showed me how to use only two fingers to play E minor on a $25 Sears Silvertone acoustic guitar. In a few months I could play "If I Had A Hammer" and "500 Miles." The Beatles were on the Ed Sullivan Show! Suddenly the Cold War felt a little less scary.
Fast forward to high school where I first heard "The Needle and The Damage Done" by Neil Young and "Black Queen" by Stephen Stills (acoustic version). I think that was the lightening bolt. My friends and I sat around for hours trying to figure out Young, John Denver, James Taylor, CSN&Y, Beatles, any song we could learn to play from a record or the radio. Another great reason to grow up in the 60's.
In the summer before the 11th grade I met Jimi Hendrix at the Tulsa airport and had a brief conversation. We shook hands. He seemed to be in a great mood and was very friendly and open. Later that night he performed at the Tulsa Civic Center with Mitch Mitchell on drums and Billy Cox on bass. I was on the 4th row. My ears ring just thinking about it. A few months later he was gone.
Fast forward to college in Stillwater, Oklahoma where I saw Leo Kottke, Willis Alan Ramsey, Gordon Lightfoot, and John Hartford. I began to experiment with open tunings.
A few years later I saw Michael Hedges play in Tulsa, and that experience completely changed how I looked at the guitar. Seven times I was privileged to see him perform live before his untimely death in 1997.
So through the years I began writing my own tunes, experimenting with alternative tunings and percussive techniques. It seems I was in and out of school forever, but the guitar was my constant companion. If you write music on the guitar I think you are always consciously or unconsciously recycling riffs and melodies that are picked up or learned along the way.
I enjoy playing at festivals, coffee houses, and small gatherings. Mostly, I play at home, always listening to what the guitar is trying to say.
"I don't think about the meaning of it all. I say, plug in your damn guitar and make some noise." -- Paul Westerburg, The Replacements