I grew up in Southern California and in the Kern River Valley. I always loved hearing stories about "the old days," and I got turned on to folk music at an early age. I never was much at singing or playing the guitar, but I plugged away at in anyway. Pete Seeger was an early hero of mine, and through Pete I got pulled into the whole deep, dark world of Americana...
I always loved nature and the outdoors, and camping, hiking, hunting, fishing and exploring were more than just passtimes; they were at the center of my existence. Later on I took a more zen-like turn, cut out the pretense, and began wandering for the sake of wandering. I always had a notebook and a guitar with me, and somewhere along in there I started writing songs.
I started playing my songs in public in San Diego, in the early eighties, sneaking them in between Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie, Grateful Dead and Merle Haggard songs. People would say, "Did you write that?" and I'd shrug and mumble something unitelligible... But everyone seemed to dig what I was doing, and it was very gratifying.
I stopped performing, for the most part, in the nineties, for artistic reasons. I was trying to figure out what I was doing, and why... But I kept writing songs, whenever one would come to me, and eventually I realized that I don't need any good reason to play them. I started playing for people again, and I generally get a good response. My older songs have been part of my life, now, for a long time and have become old and trusted compadres. The newer ones are like kids that you hope will turn out well....
I've played a lot of places the last couple years, met a lot of great people and made some real friends. I thank all the venues and organizations that I've played for and all the folks who have listened. As the old song says, "We will understand it better, bye and bye..."
I usually do all original songs at my coffee house gigs, and I also do Woody Guthrie/Dustbowl and protest song workshops and shows for festivals and special events.
