Hi folks…I am an amateur musician; I've been playing guitar, singing, and songwriting as a hobby since I was a teenager. I grew up and went to college in western Michigan, lived and worked for several years in Detroit, and moved to the Chicago area in 1996. By day, I am a social worker and a Presbyterian minister. Over the past six years or so, I’ve made some meager “efforts†at trying to get attention and break into the live music scene around Chicago, but that’s a monumental task, folks. I believe that I have some talent and that if you enjoy acoustic pop music, you’ll enjoy the tunes I’ve put up on this page. But I have made peace with the fact that I lack the drive, hunger, and dogged ambition—or luck—that it takes to market oneself and find an audience. Still, the music is part of me and continues to be my one great love in life, and this MySpace page is my way to share it with others.
Over the years, my “formal training†has included one classical guitar class in college, and a number of classes at the Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago that I took between 2002-04. Otherwise, I’m what people call “self-taught,†for better or worse. My musical influences are vast, as you can see from the list on the left side of this page. The most direct, though, include the old-school singer-songwriters like James Taylor, Jim Croce, Dan Fogelberg, Gordon Lightfoot, and later, Bruce Cockburn. The guitarists from the first generation of the Windham Hill label were a huge influence and instilled a sense of beauty in my writing: Will Ackerman, Michael Hedges, Alex deGrassi, Mike Marshall. Then there are the more contemporary singer-songwriters, Brooks Williams, Tracy Chapman, Pierce Pettis, India.Arie, and Lauryn Hill’s acoustic side, all of whom continue to influence me.The one recognizable venue I’ve played in Chicago is the Uncommon Ground Coffeehouse and Café, although the mainstream venues aren’t sure what to do with artists who don’t quash their religious identity when performing, and I’ll leave it at that. I’ve also played little concerts at the Nite Light (a ministry center in Berwyn) and at a few churches in the Chicago area. Mostly, I’m playing informally at various open mics, now and then. Most of the time, I’m playing my Martin DC-16RGTE, and I also play "Old Guitar," which is an Eterna EF-15.Lastly, in 2005 I released about 100 copies of my CD entitled, “flesh." “flesh†is comprised of 13 of my original songs, and is available for purchase at CDBaby.com; the link is on the left side of this page under “band website.â€