Musician / Vocalist
I was born in Chicago, Illinois, USA, in a hospital in the Humboldt Park neighborhood (on the near-West side). I was raised along the banks of a muddy creek West of the city, where I spent my days exploring, playing sports, and as often as possible, listening to top-40 AM radio. In those days AM radio played whatever was popular: Pop/Rock, Soul, R&B/proto-Disco, Country, straight-up old-school schmaltz…whatever would sell records. While they played a fair variety of genres/styles they also kept the rotation tight, so if you were listening all day (as we did pretty much all summer) you heard quite a bit of repetition. Multiple genres + repetition + pop sensibilities + a young person with interest & ability = a musician-in-training.
My start in playing music came when I was around 8 years old; our Presbyterian church’s music director formed a youth handbell choir in which my brother and I were charter members. This gave me the foundation of musical understanding, in the form of rhythm, melody, timing, etc. After an aborted attempt at Saxophone in the school band (just another place where I didn’t fit in socially or otherwise) I took up Guitar at age 12. I purchased a cheap
Kay solid-body instrument of dubious quality (shown, left) from a classmate for $50 that I’d saved up from mowing neighborhood lawns. I took lessons for a couple of years, on and off, first from the leader of a wedding band who was also the owner of a small music shop in Bensenville, IL, then later from an Elvis impersonator (who was a much more advanced player than “The King”) at a music store in Roselle, IL. While both of these teachers helped me with fundamentals I mostly developed my own style by mimicking such varied artists as Neil Young, Jimmy Page,
Muddy Waters, Jerry Garcia, the Guitarists from Lynyrd Skynyrd (especially Allen Collins and Steve Gaines)
and Michael Schenker. Inevitably, a band was formed. With my brother Russel on Bass and some local friends we learned how to play a variety of cover songs. For whatever reason we never settled on a name (nor even gave it much thought as I recall), nor did we attempt to write any songs. And we only played a couple of gigs over the roughly 2 years we were together (see image, right). But it was good and necessary training at an early age.
Presently I play Lead & Rhythm Guitar, Bass Guitar, 8-string “Leg Steel” Guitar (i.e. Lap-Steel-with-legs), Mandolin, Square-neck Resonator Guitar (aka “Dobro”), Electronic Keyboards and dabble in Drums, Upright Bass, various Hand Percussion, and a tiny bit of Fiddle. I also sing both Lead and Background Vocals. I’ve been a member of the now-defunct bands Green Skies Are Blue (and its predecessor The Fast Bullets) and The Gyps (and its predecessor GPG). I’ve also toured and recorded with internationally-renowned Kirtan artist & 2x Grammy-nominated producer Dave Stringer. In the past I occasionally guested with Dan Whitaker and the Shinebenders both live and on recordings, usually filling in on 8-string Steel Guitar or Bass. For a short time I was associated with an electronic music act called Theory Anesthetic. I played Lap Steel Guitar and Electric Guitar on a handful of recordings and a few live shows as well. You can also hear my Steel Guitar (briefly) on this album by Dead Rider, the project led by my old friend Todd Rittmann. More recently I’ve done some work recording and mixing songs for a new EP (the bare tracks of which were recorded at The
Shy Diamond studio in Chicago by the aforementioned Mr. Rittman) by some musicians who were in a band that’s been defunct for 30+ years, known in the late 1980s in Dekalb, IL as The Bald Willies. This song was intended to feature our friend Dan who was in the band (and is pictured in the video), but unfortunately he is no longer with us so it has become somewhat of a tribute. I composed, recorded & mixed the song, called Jackhammer, as well as played lead & rhythm Guitars and sang the lead vocal:
Recording / Mixing / Mastering
I have recorded, mixed and/or mastered several projects over the years, beginning in 1987 with a basement 4-track cassette demo for the aforementioned Bald Willies. In 1990-91 I helped assemble the talent and assisted in the recording and production of a collaborative project that brought together seven independent bands from the Dekalb / Northern Illinois University music scene. The resulting CD, released in Autumn of ’91, was called
On A Clear Day You Can See Byron: A Dekalb Compilation (shown, right). That led to a move from Dekalb, IL to Chicago, followed by numerous other productions including The Renfields, The Mercury Players, Shorty, A Horse Named Bill, The Juice Dogs and Mow. While I’m not a full-time engineer, recording has been an almost life-long pursuit; my roots & experience extend well back into the analog era of recording. And as I’ve been professionally involved with technology for the past couple of decades it was natural for me to transition to the modern, computer-based systems of today. I’ve worked in varying capacities with such artists as 2x Grammy-nominated producer/performer Dave Stringer, acclaimed Chicago-based Guitarist/Artists Bill MacKay, Mark Shippy, Alan Lerner and the late Dan Smolla, among others. I’ve also produced and/or engineered recordings for previous bands I was in, Green Skies Are Blue and GPG, and of course myself, including the song in the video above, Jackhammer as well as this version of a classic Blues number which I recorded & mixed on my own at home one rainy day, some time in the late ’90s: