I started using the name Tuff Ditties around 1980, when I was doing acoustic punk and performance art. I've been making up songs since I was in the crib (really! I can remember making up melodies to put myself to sleep then, and I still do that). I started studying violin at 8 years old, even had the privilege of being one of the last students of Maestro Sinigalliano, former concertmaster of LaScala. He probably wouldn't have been so happy when I left classical music, and played electric violin in a wide variety of bands, from the late '60s-mid '80s. Started playing guitar when I was 12, and started performing with my cousin Jan Lewis on the boardwalks of Asbury Park and Atlantic City in the early '60's -- she's gone on to become a great honky tonk piano player, check her out on uTube!. I played anytime anywhere I could til my neck and shoulder were killed by the deforming positions demanded by the violin. For 14 years, I called myself a Recovering Musician, but started writing, singing and playing guitar again in the late '90's, thinking I was writing only for other people to perform, until my love of performing convinced me to get out here myself again. I've only submitted songs to a few contests, but 'Middle Aged Boy Crazy' won Best Rock Song at the Mountain Valley Arts Festival (and came in a close runner-up for Best of Show) and 'Tara Sleeps' made Finalist in this year's Unisong Contest. So I guess I'm on the right track.
I play acoustic folkjazzbluescountryrock -- they tell me I'm not quite like anybody else, and I never know what's going to come out next. I just hope you enjoy it as much as I do. When it works, we laugh, we cry, we dance, we sigh. (Damn, I can't stop rhyming!) I love to entertain and I hope I can make you think. I'm much more comfortable performing than recording, I usually hate how I sound almost as much as I hate seeing photos of myself. But having one of the world's greatest producer/engineers here at home has helped me occasionally create a recording I can enjoy... and having many of the world's greatest players here in Nashville is so inspiring. I promise to have more posted soon.
Only the calendar and the mirror say I'm an elder, not anybody who knows me -- I'm still the same extroverted introvert singing baby beatnik Jufi mystic mad hippie violinist computer nerd performing songwriter. I still think having fun is good for me, good for you, good for the world, and so is having an honest cry or an angry wail. I love fiction and hate lies; I tell the truth, thinly disguised. I still want to save the world, but I'm less sure how to do that every day. I need all the help I can get, and you can always blame me --whoops! I'm speaking in song titles again. Later...
