I write and play Acoustic Folk/Jazz/Americana/Blues music with a vengeance!
Sometimes the style is Jazz with a twist. Sometimes its Americana with a country blues bent. There’s even an Irish tune! Intelligent lyrics, interesting characters, humorous commentary, killer hooks, and an expressive, honest delivery. You want to hear the story in these songs. This stuff kills on every level and the songs groove.
I grew up in the 60’s and early on contracted a severe case of the “rockin’ pneumonia”. I had all the requisite piano lessons and church choir stuff and might even have stayed on that road were it not for the transistor radio and the DJ’s on WABC in New York. Those guys played all the coolest tunes, and that did it. “Duke of Earl” blew me away then and still does now. As does “Green Onions” and a host of other tunes which actually encompassed a gigantic territory in terms of style: Doo-Wop, Latin, Buddy Holly, Elvis, girl groups, instrumentals, the folk scene, novelty tunes; it was all fresh and really exciting and you could find it all on the radio.
And then came the Beatles. Good God, if they didn’t kill you, I don’t know what to say! Hearing “I Want To Hold Your Hand” on the radio for the first time made me decide right then and there that I would be a musician and play for millions and meet all the best chicks. Those were great dreams; I still have them.
And because I still have them I continually find myself in new musical situations and challenges. In fact, I have been in every possible musical circumstance you can imagine from the New York City Center Opera to big-time Rock ‘n’ Roll, all of which has infected my songwriting and performance.
Most recently, I have been playing not only solo shows, but also touring with The Nils Lofgren Band and the Nils Lofgren Acoustic Duo in the U.S. and the U.K. And I have been ever so fortunate to be able to play music onstage with:
Bruce Springsteen, Jeffrey “Skunk” Baxter, Nils Lofgren, Tony Trischka, Dave Hamburger, The Nighthawks, Mark Egan,
Dobie Gray, Robert Lee Castleman, Pat Bergeson, The Kennedys, Stacy Phillips, Maryann Redmond, Timm Biery, Eddie Manion, Jordan Rudess, Big Jesse Yawn, Johnsmith, Vance Gilbert, Kate McDonnell, Connie Francis, Steve Allen, Paul Reisler, Dory Previn, Leonard Bernstein, Katharine Hepburn, Julie Sanderson, Kay Ballard, Nick Nixon and many more.
I was an original faculty member of the National Guitar Workshop and have also authored 16 Guitar Instruction Books/CDs published by Alfred Music.
I have written music for “America’s Most Wanted,” PBS TV, Presidents Clinton and Bush, Sr., as well as hundreds of commercial cues for TV, Video, Radio and Film. I have also won an Emmy Award in Cleveland, a Bronze Medal at the New York Film Festival and have been nominated for two Helen Hayes Awards in Washington, DC for Best Musical Direction.
