I am a Brooklyn-based sideman, specializing in pedal steel guitar, dobro, lapsteel and six-string guitars. I started playing guitar in 1983, when I was given a nearly unplayable Hondo acoustic instead of the set of drums I'd asked for. Praise the Lord for that. My first sideman job was playing bass guitar for Mercury Rev. We opened for Porno for Pyros and Spiritualized. My next job was playing guitar and percussion for Babe The Blue Ox. We logged about 30,000 miles opening for Cake and Marcy Playground. It was on that tour that I heard a Red House Painters song, "Have You Forgotten" that featured Bruce Kaphan's gorgeous steel guitar work, I knew instantly I had to learn how to do that. I bought my first pedal steel guitar in 2000 and played my first show in June of that year. That July I did my first recording session, for Brooklyn's avant garde pop bliss maestros Stars Like Fleas. Since then I have played on many records, played on Carson Daly, performed on a few soundtracks, and done dialogue beds for TV. I average 125 shows per year.
Some of the artists I have recorded and performed with are: Stars Like Fleas, Super Furry Animals, Downriver, J Granelli and Mr. Lucky, Pale Horse and Rider, Lori Michaels, Justin Tracy, Arum Rae Valkonen, Marc Gartman, The Glaciers, M Shanghai String Band, Emily Zuzik, Mr. Lucky, Todd Adelman, 20 Mile, Christian Gibbs, Kristin Mueller, Kelly Snyder, and Melomane...
I am grateful to some of the artists I have worked with who graciously allowed me to use their music for my page here:
Alec Gross - All The Pretty Women
Sam Barron - The Muse
Eugene Benjamin - Steelin' Chappaqua
Downriver - The Waltz
Kristin Mueller - Liberty State Park
I composed and recorded the Credit Music for Bacchanale, and Frontier Lawyer is a song from my Practice Tracks for Instrumentalists CD. Drums by Daniel Menke, bass by Tim Lefebvre, engineered by Michael Kohler at Golden Bug.
I play an Emmons D-10 push pull pedal steel and a Williams 400 Series D-10, I like Peavey Nashville 400 amps with the Ken Fox mod for the steel, and Fenders for Telecaster. I am most fond of Vibroluxes and Deluxe Reverbs. I am a fan of Bob Keeley's pedals, PedalTrain pedal boards, Canare cables, Goodrich volume pedals, and SIT strings for the steels, Ernie Ball 10-46s for the teles. For resonator guitar I use a Beard Vintage cherry, and I like bars by BJS for the steel and Elmer Bradley for the resonator and lap steels. Gear geek anyone?
