The first songs I learned on the guitar were nursery rhymes and my fifth grade teacher was my instructor. A year later I met John, a man who'd returned home to Connecticut from San Francisco where he'd lived for the past 15 years or so. John was soon playing Beatles, Dylan, and Neil Young songs for me, teaching me full chords, nurturing my developing skills and my desire to learn. John opened up a whole new world for me, introducing me to music I'd never heard but loved instantly, like Neil Young's "Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere". I was ecstatic about moving on from "Three Blind Mice" and "Pop Goes the Weasel" and learning how to play chords using all of my fingers and all of the strings.
In high school I took music theory (twice), enrolled in concert choir and men's choir, played guitar in the jazz band, and fronted Pollen an original rock quartet. I wrote my first few songs in 1995-6 to help provide Pollen with material and began playing locally with my band and as a solo, acoustic artist.
