About Me Musically

I started singing publically in my church choir at the age of 12 and picked up the guitar at age 13. Except for a 20 year hiatus for things like a tour in the Army, getting married and having 4 children I’ve been playing and singing ever since. Like everyone else, I consider the music I grew up with to be the best and so I tend to lean on songs from the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s but I know over 500 songs that cover a span of nearly 100 years including several songs from the last few years.

When performing I usually start with a setlist I think will fit in with the venue I’m playing and let the audience guide me from there. I usually tell the audience early on during my performance that I honor all requests but I only play the ones I know. After all, no one wants to hear a poor rendition of their favorite song done by someone who doesn’t know it. That being said, a repertoire of 500 songs leaves me in a fairly good position to know something by nearly any artist they mention.

The one thing I never try to do is rap. Nobody wants to hear an old white guy try to rap, do they?

I often perform with the aid of a computer program called Band in a Box and I have programmed backing tracks for many popular songs with this software. It generally adds a bass guitar and drums but I often have programmed solos with varying instruments to fill out the sound. I perform both with or without these backing tracks at your discretion.

Many of the samples I have recorded here use the backing tracks so you can get an idea of exactly how things will sound at your venue. Because of the added difficulty in setting up all of the necessary equipment to use the backing tracks I charge slightly more to perform with them than without.

I hope you’ll take the time to listen to a few of the sample tracks I’ve included here, if you do I recommend you listen with quality headphones if possible because I do not have the equipment available to fully master these recordings and they will sound better through headphones.

I look forward to hearing from you and performing for your patrons in the near future.