How I Got Here Part 2

In How I Got Here I told of how my interest in guitar began as a

pre-teen. Part 2 tells the rest of the story.

In 1985 I moved to Austin, TX. By this point I'd begun playing the bass and had played in rock and country bands in Louisiana.

When I arrived in Austin I started working for a screen printing company. One of my coworkers was a drummer who had a neighbor who was a blues guitarist. The owner of the screen printing company was kind enough to let the three of us jam after hours in the shop.

The guitarist and I found a regular drummer and vocalist and started learning classic blues tunes. We rehearsed up a bunch of tunes and began playing local then regional clubs. Because of that band's popularity I met and got to jam with some great musicians, including Dave Sanger

from Asleep At The Wheel and Cesar Rosas from Los Lobos.

I played with them for a couple of years but things soured, as sometimes happens with bands and I was invited to leave the band. I played in a couple of other bands but my heart wasn't really in it. I returned to the acoustic guitar.

I was just like many other people, working a regular job and practicing when I could. By this time it was the mid-1990's and Austin was going through another of it's periodic booms. We felt that Austin had changed in a way that we didn't care for so we leapt at the chance to move to Madison, WI when my wife's company offered her a position.

I had been having some pain in my chest and difficulty breathing right before we moved from Austin which I thought was caused by my allergies. After a couple of weeks in Madison I found a suspicious lump on my shoulder. I had it biopsied and was told that I had cancer. Oh joy! I was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Disease with tumors primarily in my left lung. I then went through six months of Chemotherapy.

I was just wiped out during the course of my chemotherapy. It finally got so bad that sitting up was almost impossible. I would lay on the sofa with my guitar on my chest and watch it snow.

It was during this time that I decided if I survived I would learn to play the guitar really well.

I obviously survived this experience and have thankfully been in remission for the last 25 years.

I really began to be consistent with my practice and began to improve. During this recovery period I became a customer of a music store that specialized in high end guitars.

It was during the beginning of the boutique acoustic guitar craze and a very exciting time for modern acoustic guitars.

The manager of the store and I hit it off and I was hired to work there, beginning on a part-time basis. This was perfect! It allowed me to work as I recovered and it was around acoustic guitars.

After a year or so I became a full-time employee. The job was really a great fit for me.

Working in the music store helped me meet local, regional and touring musicians who shared my passion for acoustic guitars. Some of our more well know customers and visitors included

Joan Baez, Ledward Kaapana, Lyle Lovett, John 5, Jack Lawrence and Scott Ainslie.

In Madison I began performing as a solo fingerstyle guitarist. My repertoire at that time consisted of songs that I got out of guitar song books: ragtime, Celtic and a few jazz standards.

I primarily played coffee houses, private functions and the occasional resort gig.

After seven years in Madison our longing for the South caused us to move back to Louisiana. We settled in the Lafayette area and have been here ever since.

I've continued to work at becoming a better musician and singer. I thought that if I worked hard enough I'd arrive at the point where I was a really good guitarist, and I believe that I am a good guitarist.

But more important than being "good" is being "better". That's the real payoff, getting better. In my mind this is really a case of the journey being more important than the destination.

So that's how I've gotten to where I am now. During my time back in Louisiana I've self released three CDs of mainly original music and am working on a new one.

I've gone through this long, seemingly self-involved, story to set up this statement: If there's something that you're passionate about, do it.

We're not practicing for life, this is it!