In the beginning...
I was born on August 23, 1960 in Conroe, Texas and have lived in this area most of my life.
I've been in music for 32 years now. I got my first guitar for Christmas when I was 14, and I played my first job a little over a year later. I wouldn't say that I was obsessed with the guitar, I just didn't do anything else.
Like pretty much every other kid, I started off learning the Rock songs of the mid 70's, and that led me to the Blues. My first band was a horrible little Rock outfit that I can't even recall the name of. But it wasn't long before I met the man who changed my life, Blues Harp player Little Walter Price.
Playin' da Blues...
I guess he heard something in my playing that I didn't know was there, because I went to work for him in mid '76 and stayed until his death in '79.
I travelled the country with him and played clubs, concerts and festivals from Toronto to Mexico City, Tuscon to Miami, and just about every city in between. I was having the time of my life! I was meeting and jamming with all my current and future heroes such as Stevie Ray Vaughan, Albert Collins, B.B. King and many others.
After his death, I joined up with a Blues horn band called Bluez Deluxe. I stayed with them for about 6 months, but a car accident from my acquired bad habits forced me to lay out for awhile.
Gone Country...
During my hiatus, a friend of mine kept coming over and playing me stuff by Willie, Waylon and Jerry Jeff Walker and I began to fall in love with Country music. My physical rehab was with a guitar in my hand.
My first Country band was with a group called Jimmy Jordan and the Texas Outcast Band. I freely admit that I sucked for awhile. Going from the long, endless jam of a Blues lead ride to saying something melodical and meaningful in 30 seconds like you have to do in Country music took some time.
I went to work with Jimbo Williamson and the Bootleg Country Band in '84 and got my first original song recorded, "Whiskey and Tears" on DTKE Records. I left the group in 1987 to pursue other projects. Since then, Jimbo and I have worked together many times and remains a close friend. Through the remainder of the '80's and early '90's, I worked with Phoenix, a popular local band in the Conroe area that played all over Texas.
Throughout the '90's, I toured and recorded with Jeff Hord and the Texas Fullhouse Band and The Hatfield/McCoy Band (Houston's "93Q Band"), opening shows for Toby Keith, Johnny Rodriguez, the Dixie Chicks and others.
On my own...
After another brief stint with Jimbo, I went out on my own in 2001, writing and recording my original songs and performing them solo. It was a lot of fun and quite a relief, in a way. After travelling and picking for others non-stop for more than 25 years, it was nice to just lay back and do my own songs in casual settings for awhile. I learned a lot about the internet music industry, recieved quite a bit of overseas radio airplay, and found whole new ways to get screwed in this business. But I still loved it.
Coming full circle...
I began to get the itch to really play again in '06. I spent the next year picking for both Rick Sousley and Kevin Robinson in a group working the Conroe area, including myself, Doyle Hayslip on fiddle and Dennis Goodman on drums as part of an interchangeable band. Or, as we were called, "the band whores".
I went back to work with Jimbo Williamson in 2007 and I am enjoying myself immensely. I am still writing and recording my own songs as demos, so who knows what project may come up next?
Stay tuned...
