My Story
I was baptized into my love of Americana music flipping through 45's with my father as a child—everything from the Beatles and CCR to Air Supply, Willie Nelson and Dionne Warwick spinning on the turntable. The first time I saw "Teen Spirit" on MTV, I felt like I saw myself on the TV in a way I've never looked back from. That raw honesty, that unvarnished truth—it lit something in me that's been burning ever since.
I cut my teeth playing coffee shops and occasional bars in the Fargo-Moorhead area during college, sharing venues with Stuart Davis and Mason Jennings. In 2004, I released my first full-length album of original material, Slide Rule Sundays—a record that showed my rootedness in genre-bending Americana, drawing from the blues, country, and rock and roll in equal measure. I toured heavily in the Twin Cities through the early 2000s, but around 2006, with a full-time family, booking fatigue, and an ASCAP crackdown that made playing out difficult, I stopped performing completely.
The thing is, I've never been able to quit writing songs. If there's one thing I wish I had more time for, it would be writing and recording my music. The truth is I miss playing out terribly. Now, with my little wolf cubs reaching the age where they're about to leave the pack, I'm finding my desire to produce and perform more prolifically beginning to stir again. What you hear here reflects a first step toward realizing that desire—music that's still rooted in those early influences but shaped by years of living, serving, and never quite letting go of the songs that keep asking to be written.
These day my time is spent as a father and husband serving my family, and as a full-time parish minister at UP church here in Grayslake. But when I can find a spare minute here or there, my passion and escape continue to be playing guitar, writing songs, and lately, I'm finding great energy growing as an independent producer and engineer—recording, mixing, and mastering my own music.
I can't help myself right now! I have three projects working their way through the pipeline: a covers album and two collections of original material. I sincerely hope you'll have listen, subscribe or even download some material