Born: Shaw Air Force Base (Sumter), South Carolina, USA on 29 October 1952.

Living in: Fort Walton Beach, Florida

Past Band Member of:

• Six Street Exit (variety - Wichita Falls, Texas)
• Dogman and the Sheperds (blues - San Antonio, Texas)

Music & Poetry Background:

I first studied 6 months with a local jazz guitarist when I was 14 years old; studied 6 months at the Southwest Guitar Conservatory in San Antonio, Texas; self-studied books/theories of Joseph Schillinger, George Russell, David Baker, Dick Grove, Paul Hindemith, Henry Cowell, George Van Epps, Ted Greene.

My first "dabblings" in poetry started at around the same age under the influences of Robert Frost, e.e.cummings, Ezra Pound, Wallace Stevens, Conrad Aiken, Archibald MacLeish, T.S. Eliot, and William Carlos Williams. Most of my poetry was written during high school and a few years after. However, I have done very little since, though I have a great deal of respect for the art. I hope to continue with it in the future integrated into my music.

My first exposure to using music with computers was with the Orchestra-90 music language on the TRS-80 Model III and later on the Model 4P and Color Computers 1/2/3. My first "real" (i.e. use of MIDI) exposure was using the Commodore Amiga 1000 and numerous music programs released for it including Music Studio, Deluxe Music, SoundScape, Tiger, KCS with MPE/PVG, Dynamic Studio, Music X, Synthia Pro, M, Music Mouse, Hyperchord, Pixound, and Bars&Pipes Pro. Since then I use a PC compatible primarily with MakeMusic's Finale notation software and Cakewalk's SONAR MIDI and audio sequencing software.

Although I compose, and lately transcribe and arrange, more than play, I hope to integrate my MIDI guitar input more in my future music where guitar chord melody interests me most of all besides jazz, progressive rock, big band and orchestral works.