Thank you for chatting with us! What was the best piece of advice you've ever been given about pursuing a career in music?
My dad advised me not to pursue a career in music and I took his advice to heart. I worked an entire career as a small business owner and played music on weekends. After I sold my company, I began writing and performing music more regularly. I pick and choose musical opportunities but I am passionate about songwriting and have made many memories in my performing career.
You've played on a lot of stages with a lot of big artists, is there anyone you've been star struck by? Mick Fleetwood. He was touring with Bekka Bramlett and Billy Thorpe and we opened for them. He's a big man and absolutely dwarfed his drum kit. Big man and powerful player! His musical accomplishments speak for themselves. Another memory was opening for Steve Morse from The Dixie Dregs. I looked out over the audience and everyone there was watching closely what I was playing on the guitar and how I was playing it. I remember thinking, " They're all guitar players, yikes!" It was a little intimidating, but when you're up there on stage, you only have one job!
If you could only perform one of your songs for someone who has never heard of you, what song would that be? "Old Movies and You." It's a song from my first album; Department of the Interior and it tells the story about losing someone who is so much a part of you that you don't know how or if you can continue. I think it's a beautiful song with good lyrics and a great message, which is; if you have someone you love, do those things which will make them happy while you can. Don't put it off only to have regrets later. I recorded it in Nashville with some great musicians who have recorded tons of hit records.
At the end of the day, what do you hope is the message of your music? What do you hope people take away from your songs? I like to write about the human condition: about how to be happy, how to be motivated to improve, how to forgive yourself and others. How love and longing are a part of life and that being sad sometimes or having failed is not necessarily a bad thing as long as you don't give up. Each of us has a comeback story waiting to be written. It's up to us to find it. I'm just a guy who's trying to figure it all out. Sometimes, I write it up in a song and hope it might help someone else.
Is there one song in particular you're most excited about people hearing? My latest album, Pictures In Time is written as a sort of chronology of a person as they grapple with the issues of life; false starts, relationships that didn't work out but staying on the path of life and figuring things out starting over, trying again, not giving up and continuing to believe in oneself. Eventually finding some clarity and even grace. It's an album that really should be listened through from start to finish. I think the songs stand on their own, but I'm old enough to remember when creating an album of songs was an art form in itself. If I had to pick the "singles" I guess I'd pick House of Mirrors, Better Angels, and This Time, but I like all the other songs just as well. I don't have a good sense of what people will gravitate too. My favorite song on the album is the last song; "The Road Ahead." It channeled my inner Allman Brother and has some seriously good musicianship on it!
What is an example of a menu you would prepare if I came over? I have been making homemade pizza for a long time. It is really my number one specialty! My wife is an awesome cook and the kitchen is her domain but she lets me in there to make pizza and to wash dishes. My pizzas are pretty simple; homemade crust with 2/3rds white, 1/6 whole wheat, and 1/6 semolina flour. I prepare the dough using the bread machine, and pull it out of the machine as soon as it's ready to spread out in the pans. I also use 1/2 milk and 1/2 water for the liquid. Add a little sugar, a little salt and of course, yeast and you're ready to go. For toppings, I like just a smear of red sauce and herbs and then cheese and veggies. Don't overload it though.
What is your favorite wine? Honestly, it varies because it depends on what food is being served. A hearty meat dish or stew will require an assertive red that won't get slapped around by the food. With fish, I like a white or sometimes a rose'. I seldom have a glass of wine without pairing it with food. With a cheese plate, I can go with a white like a Vermentino or a Roussanne or for a red, you can't go wrong with a great California Cabernet like Isosceles from Justin Vineyards in Paso Robles.
What is your favorite breakfast? Corn-fried eggs. Put enough olive oil in a pan to cover the bottom plus a little extra, add some coarse-ground cornmeal and wait until it starts to sizzle then crack a couple of eggs into the pan. Add cornmeal on top of the eggs...enough to coat them and then after a minute or so, flip them and cook them to your liking. It's just over easy eggs with corn meal. Delicious! My father in law invented these and they're great and easier to make than regular over easy eggs.
What is your favorite sandwich? I love a good homemade BLT on great bread! We have a local grocery store in southern Ohio named Dorothy Lane Market and they make a whole wheat bread named Seedsational which is amazing! I figured out the other day that we spend $500- a year on that bread!
If you could be sponsored by one food/drink brand who would it be and why? OK. This is really silly but I wrote a song that was on my first album called "Taste of Freedom." I think Frito-Lay could use that song and make it "Taste of Fritos"...There, I've said it.
SOCIALS:
Comentários