New releases

I was born in Springfield Missouri and grew up in a rural area just outside of town, right off old Route 66. I had this harmonica I played to death and drove my sister up the wall. I remember wanting to play drums for elementary school band but my mother wanted me to try something a little more tolerable. I had my heart set on the drums and consequently didn’t get the music lessons like all of the other kids. When it came time for junior high band I had no idea how to read the music. I have no idea what qualified me to be in the class. The band teacher chose baritone and then tuba as my instrument since nobody else wanted to do it. Not being able to read the notes made it difficult. If there were no fingering charts, I had to fake it. I learned how to produce notes that might not have been the right ones but the band teacher didn’t seem to mind as long as I was trying. There was no handle on my tuba case so I had to bear hug this huge instrument just to get it home three quarters of a mile away. I didn’t sign up for band when I entered high school. I joined drama class where I was introduced to improv duet. I was not too bad at making up ideas on the spot that the audience found entertaining.  I bought a bass guitar and my neighbor gave me an old Silvertone amp. My improv duet partner would come to my house with his friends and his electronic keyboard. We would create and record the most absurd music. It was the most fun I ever had. We were making something. As juvenile and vulgar as the songs may have been, they were the launching pad. After I graduated high school everything changed at a rapid pace. I moved in with my girlfriend and I met some musicians in Springfield. Everybody needs a bass player so I was always someone they wanted to hang out with. I totally forget the name of one guy in particular but we would hang out all of the time with his musician friends and just play music. Nothing we did was recorded but that’s where I started creating and memorizing basslines that I would later record. My little musical creations went no further than the cassette tape they were recorded on but they were the catalyst. After breaking up with my girlfriend and getting into all kinds of trouble I decided to move to New York not to “make it.” I came to New York because I was afraid of what kind of stupid decisions I might have made if I stayed in my home town. New York was a place that gave me a sense of purpose. I went to band auditions without any grand expectations. After a handful of auditions, this band “Please” called me back. It didn’t take long until we were playing shows around town. We even opened up for Radiohead at CBGB’s and Morphine at the Middle East in Cambridge Massachusetts. At least I think we opened up for Morphine. They have so many stages there and that was thirty years ago. I’m pretty sure we did. I did one US tour with Please. I learned so much from that experience. After that tour, I realized I couldn’t afford the cost of being in a band. I quit the band and started performing in the subway’s and on the streets. I still would play with Please on regional tours occasionally and also formed a band “Speed Dial” with one of the Please band members. We would play shows around town and eventually I quit that band and Peter would go on with that project without me. He did hire me to go on an Eastern European tour. I was also in a band “Escapade” with the drummer and the singer/guitarist of Please. With that band we shared the bill with John Zorn and Thurston Moore.  During that time my busking experience brought me many opportunities.  The “Pile Of Things” and “Hurricane” videos were the result of my time on the corner of Astor Place and Lafayette where I met Magda Meissner. “Foul Advocate” was placed in an Indie movie “What Alice Found.” from someone who saw me playing in the subway.  Some of my little guitar ramblings have been used in Sundance film channel’s “Conversation In A World” Ed Harris interview. I am currently going through decades of music that has been sitting on a hard drive and releasing the best of it from captivity.