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About The Artist
A MODERN-DAY HOMER
I grew up in the hills and forests of western Pennsylvania and spent my summers at the New Jersey shore but have lived all over the world.
My childhood bedroom was a mix of solar system dioramas and Ancient Greek mythology, subjects that epitomize my fascination with where humanity fits into the Universe and my need to approach my albums with a large scope that sees the big picture (the epic) while simultaneously embracing an eye for detail. Consequently, each album has a larger thematic arc with the individual songs functioning as vignettes, stops along the way that form a cohesive journey (much like an Altman film).
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In third grade, my parents acquired a vintage upright player piano from the 1890s, and for the next three years I studied piano eight months out of each year. My instructor, Minnie Watkins, was the old grandmother of one of my parents' friends. Already over ninety when I began studying under her, Minnie had been teaching music for seventy years and taught for the love of it. She charged me $2 an hour. She started me off with "Beautiful Dreamer" and "Somewhere, My Love (Theme from Dr Zhivago)" and eventually had me playing simplified arrangements of Mozart and Beethoven.
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During the summer before seventh grade, my family moved to southern California, where I began to study writing in earnest under some amazing teachers (Ms. Joan Dann in seventh and eight grade, and Ms. Doris Blake in ninth grade). In Irvine, I also encountered several lifelong friends who have also been constant artistic inspirations, chief among them Bettina Joy de Guzman of Ancientlyric and Lyra.
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When my family returned to western Pennsylvania, I began to merge my poetry with music. Some of my earliest songs written during this time — Endless Street, House of Cards, The Consecrated Mother (adapted from the Anne Sexton poem), In My Arms, and Fool's Lullabye — are still part of my recorded and live repertoire.
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In 1989, I attended the Pennsylvania Governor's School for the Arts, where I first played my original song "House of Cards" live. At Penn State, I continued to write songs that eventually became my first two self-produced and self-released albums, ENDLESS STREET: A SPIRITUAL TRAVELOGUE and SURVIVING THE JONESES. While those two albums are currently out of print, my band and I are re-recording those albums one track at a time in between our newer projects.
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After college, I took a decade and a half hiatus from recording and performing original music. During part of that tenure I was providing full-time live-in eldercare to my grandmother, who suffered from age-related dementia and various physical ailments. When I began to write again in 2008, my efforts were at first curtailed by vocal issues: I ruptured vocal folds and my esophageal sphincter due to coughing fits caused by pneumonia. I have been slowing regaining my voice. Despite not having even half my range restored at the time, I began to record MEMOIRS OF A MANWHORE: THE REELING WALTZ OF A DRUNKEN LOTHARIO in late 2010 with Adam Silverstein in Derby, England. The rest is history.