Originally from Long Island, New York, I started out with four chords at age 12, shown to me by my Dad. After playing guitar for about a year, I was hooked on Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Rush, as well as other obscure heavy rock bands of the late 60s and 70s. Prior to that, I had grown up listening to a lot of guitar oriented music, as well as bluegrass, Italian music, Greek music(particularly, the Zorba The Greek soundtrack) and old rock 'n' roll.
A year after moving to Texas, at 15, I discovered German guitar phenomenons Uli Jon Roth and Michael Schenker. It was during this time, I formed my first decent band, playing covers and experimenting with improvisation, in a power trio setting. We never really had a singer, so it was a great way for me to practice my chops. I spent the next few years in various metal bands.
In 1989, I joined New Orleans born thrash/death metal band, Hammer Witch and stayed 5 years with them. For the next 10 years, I was in experimental metal band, Amillion Pounds, with my brother. I wrote three songs on acoustic guitar during that band's existence and just kept going from there. My titles are usually based on (or taken from) places I've been, their sound, or what was going on at the time they were written. Jimmy Page and Leo Kottke were also huge influences, from early on.
By 2002, I was completely immersed in the acoustic guitar, further inspired by the likes of Michael Hedges and John Fahey, as well as middle-eastern and various types of world music.
In 2005, I co-founded my brother's bluegrass brainchild, The Electric Mountain Rotten Apple Gang. After 2 years, from "The Gang" spawned the band, Blackland River Devils. "The Devils" are essentially the Dallas/Fort Worth members of the Gang, as my brother moved to Austin, taking the EMRAG name with him, thus rebuilding an Austin chapter. I'm into various other musical projects, as well. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.