My Uncle Jack gave me a lot of cool stuff when I was a kid…a giant reel to reel tape recorder that I never did figure out how to use; a little movie camera that I could never seem to find a way to plug in or a battery that fit ; a crazy fishing gear collection like you’d see on the back of a comic book: 3 poles and reels and a giant box of lures and flies that were guaranteed to catch lots of fish. I don’t eat fish.

However…when I was six years old he gave me an electric guitar with cord, practice amp, and chord book. He had won it in a poker game. Not certain what sort of guitar it was. It was white, had 3 pickups and 4 knobs, a sunburst pick guard and a whammy bar. Me and that guitar were about the same size at the time. I didn’t much care for the chord book and I had no idea how to tune it but…I sure did like to feel the strings vibrate and that was enough.

I’ve always had a guitar around. I bought my first acoustic guitar when I was about ten years old. $25.00 from Western Auto. It was really hard to play. My mom used her Green Stamps to buy my next one…a nylon string classical guitar. Much easier! I’ve always been writing songs but rarely doing much with them… short of playing them for the cats and forgetting them a month later. That changed in 2000 when I wrote a song for someone and played it for her. I was encouraged to “do something with my music” so I started playing with some friends and eventually was the founder of Blue Line Highway, which would be my band for the next 12 years.

I seriously doubt I would have done much musically without all the players that went through Blue Line Highway. I’m no solo performer and consider myself more of a “songwriter singer” instead of the other way around. I could never really tolerate lessons so I have little to no idea what I’m playing. I needed a lot of help!

Blue Line Highway was my first band and would keep me busy from 2001 until 2012. For most of that time period we rehearsed twice a week and played a minimum of 60 shows a year. We recorded six CD’s. I was the primary songwriter on these recordings and you can listen to and purchase music from this site. Our music was played on hundreds of public and community radios stations across the US and one in Israel. We were filmed for PBS programs twice and had numerous local television appearances. We mostly played in a five state, six-hour radius around Richmond VA and enjoyed many of the great stages of the region.

I had an opportunity to move back to California so I left the band in 2012. Presently, I live a little ways downhill from Grass Valley…just below the snowline with a lovely live oak view. I’m working on new music and finding players for a new band.

Blue Line highway continues to play as a quartet in and around VA. You can Google them for more info.