About the Music

My musical life started back in junior high, when I first picked up the bass guitar and began discovering what it felt like to be part of a band. Around that time, I formed a band with my friend PJ Heldrich called OMNI. Like a lot of early bands, it was part music, part friendship, part imagination, and part figuring things out as we went. But it gave me something important: the feeling that music could become a lifelong companion.

Later, while attending Southern Illinois University, I studied classical guitar, which gave me a deeper appreciation for technique, tone, and the discipline behind playing. At the same time, I continued playing bass in various bands, most notably The Womb, a Carbondale staple in the late eighties. Those years were full of live music, creative energy, late nights, loud rooms, and the kind of musical education that does not always happen in a classroom.

After moving to Las Vegas, Nevada, my focus gradually shifted more toward guitar and songwriting. I became more interested in telling stories through songs, shaping lyrics, and finding my own voice as a writer. Eventually, I joined a band called Linkage, and for sixteen years I had the privilege of playing some of the best music of my life with them. That band became an important chapter for me — not just musically, but personally and creatively.

Since then, I have spent a lot of time focusing on Bob Dylan cover songs through a project I call Deadly Dylan. The name comes from the way I was first turned on to Dylan: through the Grateful Dead album Postcards of the Hanging. Hearing Dylan through that lens gave me a different doorway into the songs. It was not just about covering Dylan, but about feeling the songs as living things — songs that can be reshaped, revisited, and carried forward in a personal way.

Along with the Dylan material, I keep other random songs in my repertoire and continue to write original music. Some songs are serious, some are strange, some are humorous, and some simply come from whatever I happen to be thinking about at the time. I have always liked the idea that a song does not have to fit neatly into one category. Sometimes it is a story, sometimes it is a joke, sometimes it is a memory, and sometimes it is just a sound or feeling that needed somewhere to go.

Eventually, I plan to perform out in public again. For now, this website is where my music can be heard. These recordings represent different pieces of my musical path — bass player, classical guitar student, band member, songwriter, Dylan interpreter, and independent home recorder. This page is a place for me to gather those sounds together and share them with anyone who happens to find their way here.