I grew up in the burbs of Chicago and after watching the Johnny Cash show at age 5 I told my Mom I wanted to be like Johnny and carry a guitar slung over my back. My Mom, being the great Mom that she is, saved her pennies and bought me a brand new Fender 3/4 Acoustic with nylon strings for $90. And I was on my way.
As a child I spent endless hours with my guitar copping licks off records and cassette tapes. Somehow, growing up in the midwest, I became a big fan of Southern Rock and by the time I was 15 years old I could play nearly every Lynyrd Skynyrd song and solo. Led Zeppelin, Rush and Boston also influenced my early years.
I got accepted to the Berklee College of Music in Boston and in 1984 loaded up the old Ford and
headed east. Meeting musicians from all of the world really changed my perspective on music.
While at Berklee I was in a band called Truth and played many gigs in the Boston area at clubs
like Bunrattys, The Channel and The Paradise. While at Berklee I became obsessed with the blues
and that became my focus on guitar for years to come.
I also became a songwriting major and
started to study the craft of songwriting as well as guitar. Coming to the conclusion that there was something
magical in creating a song that didn't exist a few hours ago, I started to focus completely on songwriting. Neil Young says that songs are
just out there flying around the earth and you have to learn how to grab 'em. A great example of this
is Neil's song "Like a Hurricane" which was written in ten minutes as he sat in
bed with the flu. Like Neil Young I try to write the most honest music that I can. I do not allow
commercialism to enter the equation as much as humanly possible. Thus my music is not for everybody but it is what it is.
I graduated from Berkworld in 1990 and moved to Nashville to become a rich and famous songwriter. Oh yeah, I sold my Harley to pay for the move, bad investment decision. I landed a gig playing guitar on the road for the Sage Brothers Band. We drove all over the Western U.S. playing divey clubs and casinos in places like Elko, NV and Chadron, NE. No way to make a living but hey, live and learn. I stayed in Nashville after that experience and entered the infamous Nashville songwriting scene. Fortunately my rock roots overpowered me and I formed a band called Llama. We rented a house in the hills and wrote and recorded night and day. Llama music was sort of a cross between Dinosaur Jr. and The Flaming Lips. After a few years of that, I realized that the lifestyle wasn't right for me and headed back to New England.
So here I am up in York, Maine writing and recording at Camp Monk.
Thanks for stopping by,
Mystery X
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