About

My main interest in music is songwriting. I write for myself and perform occasionally. It’s fun, and it helps the creative/writing process. Once in a while, I am asked to write something for someone/something else. I am able, at least sometimes, to write for an occasion, or write to spec.

In 2007, I co-wrote the Alma Mater for Dowling College with Olivia Marie, We Stand Taller. It is very much in the style of the venerable, Pomp and Circumstance and that was the challenge. Lyrically, I wanted something that was truthful and positive, but not over-the-top sappy. A little sentimentality goes a long way. For me, the song evokes both a well-deserved sense of accomplishment, while maintaining some modesty.

A year earlier, my friend Dave challenged me to write a pop-rock song for the song market. He had me listen to a few Jewel and Avril Lavene CDs, which I liked. I don’t normally listen to that stuff on my own, but it had some great powerful hooks. I got a sense of what I would like to hear them sing and wrote Beautiful. Beautiful has at least two lyric concepts: The first is about youthful beauty and the game of attraction. The second is about inner beauty and real attraction. The song placed third in the 2007 Dallas Songwriters Association - annual Songwriters Competition in the pop-rock category. Beautiful, is on my second CD, 14 Fish, 2 Bottles & a Shoe.

I have also written, or co-written, songs for a couple of Gone Tribe CDs. In 1995, producer Doug Morrow told me he was producing a blues project called the HOBO Project and had created a cast of Hobo characters with storylines, or backstories. He asked if I would like to write a song and I said sure. Since the CD was going to be blues, I decided for variety, I would write an up-tempo, happy song, called This is the Good Life. It features some of the characters and romanticized the life of a hobo, which was very much in the spirit of the project.

Artists and friends I have worked with along the way include the Gone Tribe, the Reggaematics, Tooly Look, Smokestack Lightning, Angels In Overdrive, the Scoundrels and the Blue Unknown. I performed for many years with Opera Pro Voce as a baritone. I want to especially acknowledge the memory of my beloved voice teacher and friend, Gloria Hilborn.

I studied music theory at SUNY Fredonia and electronic music with Barton McLean and David Tudor at iEar studios/Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. I also got quite an education at WRPI, the college radio station.

The Island Songwriters Showcase has been really important and helpful to my writing. I joined back in 1995 when I was writing and recording my first CD, Songs of Dunder. I’ve hung in there, gotten a lot of good advice and encouragement over the years. The 2nd CD in 2006 is much more representative of what I can do with just a guitar and mic. I certainly could not have written those songs without the ISS.

My music is eclectic – a mix of folk, reggae, opera and jazz. I call it "FROJ". (It sounds better than it sounds.)

Click here for my list of fishy music sites…