Music is now and has always been an elemental force in my existence.

     In utero, I’m sure my Mom was singing and as a child growing up in Northern New Jersey, I listened to my parents sing in church choirs, groups, and break out in song at any opportunity. My Dad was a choir soloist and my Mom had sung in a mixed quartet on local radio in Western Pennsylvania where she grew up. Music was our family’s second language.

      On the eight hour drive back to my parents’ family homes, one of which was the original Scots/Irish Homestead and a working dairy farm, we sang and harmonized for hours. So singing in church choir, choir ensembles, school choir, double quartets, All-State Choir and 10 years of piano study all seemed perfectly natural to me. I grew up hearing classical music, Irish/Celtic music, pop, Nat King Cole, Sarah Vaughn, The Swingle Singers, and an eclectic mix from our stereo system.

     Of course I had my own radio and, with New York City close by, I tuned in to the Rock and Roll stations — WINS and WABC. In college, at the University of Delaware, the music of the 60’s and 70’s pervaded my life. My roommate and I hitched up to NYC at every opportunity to Greenwich Village to see Joni Mitchell, Cream, Alice Cooper, Blood, Sweat & Tears, and concerts at the Fillmore East with Janis Joplin and Big brother and the Holding Co., Steppenwolf, Quicksilver Messenger Service, then the Doors, Simon and Garfunkel, Jefferson Airplane and Jimi Hendrix to name a few. Ah — the music.

     Motown was music that moved and enthralled me. Smokey Robinson was my favorite. By the time Maggie and I arrived in Colorado the great music of the 60’s and 70’s was winding down and John Denver, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, and Firefall were revving up here. A friend introduced me to the guitar and that led me to the Denver Folklore Center.

     I started writing songs in the early 80’s — but having seen Maggie’s brother and other hugely talented musicians flounder in the “music business,” a career in music never seemed possible to me. So, I joined the Colorado Choir for a few years where we occasionally sang with the Denver Symphony. I continued to dabble in the guitar and song writing while making a career in medical research and raising a family in Denver. I “rediscovered” the Folklore Center and Swallow Hill Music Association in early 2000 and found I had a lot of music prodding me to set it free. Classes, workshops , and the Swallow Hill Café Songwriters Open Stage pushed me to listen, write, learn, and perform — something I am still learning a lot about. Finally, I attended Song School at the Rocky Mountain Folks Festival in August, 2003, and decided I was going to channel all my energy and love of music and verse into song writing. I would study the guitar and study the song writing craft and see where it led me.

     So, here I am all those years later. Listen on...