Last updated: 4 days ago
I first picked up a guitar when I was 10 years old. Even though I was the son of a United Methodist minister, I wasn't too interested in playing church or religious music. Instead, I learned to play guitar by listening to James Taylor, Paul Simon, Jim Croce and John Denver records. My music career began to grow while I was attending Millikin University in Decatur, Illinois. I was able to play many of the clubs that Dan Fogelberg played, but my path would be different. It wasn't until I was attending Chicago Theological Seminary that I learned I had a gift for writing and performing Christian music. I continued playing clubs when I moved to the east coast. I experienced some success there and even opened for Arlo Guthrie and Pete Seeger! The music career was put on "hold" when my father was diagnosed with cancer and I moved back to Illinois to be close to home. I left music and the clubs for a career in education. It was not until years later that I began performing again. This time, I was part of a duo with my good friend Bruce Poulter. We began playing in church and then, area churches. My songwriting skills improved and so did the desire to perform the music I was writing. In 2012, I released SOMETHING THAT MATTERS. In 2014, as I was preparing to tour in England, I released HAVE A LITTLE FAITH, a collection of recordings I wrote and performed with Bruce. And in 2015, I released A BRAND NEW DAY which contains a number of tunes inspired by my 2014 concert trip to England.