Bio

My first recollection of loving music was at age five. My mother took me to the L.A. County Fair and while viewing the exhibits, we stumbled across a booth with an AM radio station doing a live broadcast. It was KMPC, and they had also set up a booth where you could go inside and they would make a 5 minute plastic record of whatever you wanted to say or sing. My mother put me in the booth and told me to sing one of the songs I'd learned. What I didn't know at that age was the part about singing in key. Later on in life I realized that singing came naturally and when I listened back to that primitive recording, at the age of five, without accompaniment, I had sung with almost perfect intervals. My mother bought me a used piano, and at ten, I started lessons. After, several years, and the influences of The Beach Boys and The Beatles, I wanted to switch to guitar. My mother purchased a guitar from the GREEN STAMP company with books and books full of the precious stamps. My first guitar was a nylon string, classical style guitar. When I look back, I remember tuning my guitar to a pitch pipe and playing G, C, and D, (Good Lovin') till I was blue in the face. The most important song I learned at an early age was "House of the Rising Sun" by "The Animals". It had so many chord changes in it, which if you could play the whole song that means you could play most of the chords Dylan and Lennon were using."

In junior high school someone asked me if I could play guitar and I said yes. When I went home, I was so afraid that someone was going to ask me to play, that I sat for hours and hours practicing to avoid embarrassment. In eighth grade I met Bruce Herring in one of my classes, and we became friends. Bruce invited me over to his house one day, and we started playing guitar. I believe "Gloria" by Them was the first song we ever played together. Bruce taught me the chords and we started playing together. After that Bruce and I started a band and were performing in local "battle of the bands" together. Throughout high school we continued playing, although not always in the same band. Through just a coincidence we both attended the same college.

I used to jam with Gary Arthur in between classes at our college campus. Many musicians would bring their guitars and we would have sing-a-thons for hours. Many times forsaking our class schedule to participate in the musical festivals. We would play songs by "Crosby, Stills and Nash", "Ritchie Havens", "The Band", most of time specializing in the tricky harmonies that made them famous. It was a blast to sing the harmony parts Those acoustic guitar sessions and the close harmonies were an important trademark of "The Way" sound. Somehow, God had his hand of the three on us. Bruce, Gary, and I, would form "The Way" and our close harmonies would become a staple of the band. After several Maranatha! Albums, and two albums of our own, and seven years of touring, the band broke up. We all had grown, but in different directions. So the band members sort of just went their different ways, many joining other groups.

Over the years, while raising four kids, and coaching softball teams, I managed to play in many different bands, covering a wide variety of musical styles. "I played Rock, Funk, Jazz, Country, Folk and Irish folk-rock. With time I have been able to devote more time to writing and have wanted to record more songs. I hope you enjoy these songs! They represent a lot of different styles and influences. Speaking of influences, I'd like to thank these guitar players for their styles. Paul Stookey, Danny Kalb, Dick Dale, Elvin Bishop, Mike Bloomfield, Johnny Winter, Carlos Santana, Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, John Cipollina, George Harrison, Steven Stills, Larry Carlton, Lee Ritenour, Jorma Kaukonen, Al DeMeola, Paul Simon, Jeff Beck, Chieli Manuchi, and my very favorite Phil Keaggy.