How I Got Here

Welcome to my first blog post!

I hope that you won't find this post to be too self centered on my part. I say this because I thought I would tell you a little bit about how I went from a guitar crazy teen to a recording and performing artist.

It's been a long and fairly crooked path going from learning my first guitar chords to where I am now. It wouldn't surprise me if there aren't parts of my story that parallel some of your experiences in life!

I first began fooling around with a guitar when I was I twelve years old. To earn a little pocket money I had begun cutting friends' and relatives' yards. My next door neighbor had a Sears and Roebuck Silvertone guitar that he'd given up learning on so I bought it from him. It cost around ten bucks or so. It was a funky little guitar that was really hard to play but it got me started.

Even at that tender age I'd been exposed to a lot of music. My parents had a Chet Atkins record, among others, and I heard The British Invasion music and folk music on the radio. I also heard a lot of music in church and show tunes from movie musicals (Mom was a High School speech and drama teacher).

My Dad found a guy who was an Airman at the Air Force Base in our area who gave guitar lessons. Fortunately for me he was a Chet Atkins fanatic and introduced me to the world of fingerstyle guitar. I still use things that I learned from those lessons on a daily basis.

I don't know if there's a word that describes my abilities as a young guitarist. I was the exact opposite of a child prodigy. Anti-prodigy, maybe? Despite my slow progress I loved playing

and plugged away at it, gradually getting better. By this time I'd acquired an electric guitar, a Hagstrom 2. How an electric guitar built in Sweden ended up in small town Louisiana in the late 1960's is beyond me.

Armed with my Hagstrom guitar, Supro guitar amp and limited skills I was able to create a real ruckus. I was too young to play in bars, which would have sent my teetotaling Baptist parents into orbit, but I was able to play in a couple of Christian musicals that were all the rage at the time.

After high school I kind of lost interest in the guitar. I went to a couple of semesters of college but that wasn't working for me so I got a job. After saving up some money I took off to see the world. I loaded up a backpack with some basic camping supplies and began hitchhiking up to the Northeast with a cousin. We parted ways in Alabama and I ended up hitching to Savannah, Georgia. Long story short, I ended moving to Savannah within the year.

While living in Savannah, a life changing event occurred. I got married!

After a couple of years, my bride and I moved back to Louisiana. At this point I still wasn't playing. About this time I went to Merchant Marine School and got my tankerman's license and began working on towboats on the Mississippi River and other inland waters.

My work had me away from home for thirty days and then I'd be off for fifteen. I did this for a short period of time but decided it wasn't for me. We'd only been married for a couple of years and the long separations were difficult. I got a job and rediscovered my interest in playing the guitar.

I'll end this here but, believe me, there's a lot of story left to tell. Check back in coming days to hear the rest of the story.