i started playing coffee houses in old town and hyde park when i was 15. back then, if you were a "folkie", the rockers wouldn't talk to you. those were the days of josh white, bob gibson, hamilton camp, bob buchanan, inman and ira, fred and ed holstein, john carbo and later, steve goodman and john prine. it was a great time to be playing music, meeting everyone and all of us stealing songs from each other.

then bob dylan hired a drummer and the rest is history. musical styles started to overlap and the rockers got folkie and the folkies started rockin'. i remember being asked to play with my friend rick's band, "the pastels"  (matching suits, mind you) at a sock hop at immaculatta high school in chicago. the guy's went nut's when this "folkie" shows up with a wired for sound acoustic 12 string guitar, but dug it when we did "as tears go by".

through the years, my musical adventures have always straddled the fence between acoustic, wooden kinda music (you might call it "folk" or "country") and plugged in, turned up rock and roll, not to mention a great love for what was called "soul" music in high school, the temptations, marvin gaye, gladys knight, etc.

i'm lucky, no, i'm VERY lucky to have been in the bands that i've been in, from "folk" gigs with chester tocha, alex wayne, and bob grant, to the elvis band with donny gross and the best elvis impersonator that ever curled his lip, keith miller, to the art-rock days of cesserait with tom vittaco, geoff macdonald and chris wiley (still one of my favorite song writers), to a week with bill haley's comets in pennsylvania, to the infamous zone rangers with mark, steve, les and melva, to lincoln avenue legands, the dive bombers with marcia, mike and chester, to the band's that i'm thankful to play with today.

since 1985, i've been playing with, caring for and feeding the white saddle band. there have been 18 (seriously good)members so far and it's not over yet. find us at:
www.thewhitesaddleband.com.

ace guitarist mike o'cull (a familiar name, no doubt) and i have a little duo called the better half. wanna know how THAT name happened? just ask!

i also have a great time playing with my pal jim bartholomew in a duo called on the air. check us out at:
www.myspace.com/jimandrichontheair.

the latest adventure is a group of great guys that i'm VERY flattered to have been asked to play with. we're called
8 miles south. give a listen at: www.myspace.com/the8milessouthband.

ok, that's it. check out the sites, listen to the music (a sample from work with each band is above), c'mon out to see us and most of all, thanks to everyone (you know who you are) for the continued support and understanding of the craziness, the rediculous hours, the rehearsals and all the ups and downs of the music business. willie nelson sure knew what he was talkin' about when he wrote, "the night life, ain't no good life, but it's my life".

peace and love.....