I have always loved music and been musically inclined playing piano by ear and playing flute in wind ensemble and marching band starting when I was 12. Between my mom rocking me to sleep to John Denver and my father playing acoustic guitar around me when I was a baby, perhaps it is no wonder that sometime in my Junior year of high school I finally picked up the guitar. Soon afterwards my good friend Kelly Graham and I began leading worship for our small home fellowship on Sundays and occasionaly helping out at high school Bible studies in our home town of Grants Pass, Oregon. During this time I wrote the first of what would turn out to be many songs, some intended to be worshipful and others with more of a message in them.
1992
In the fall of 1992 I went away to college at Oregon State University and this is when my songwriting began to pick up as God laid a burden on my heart to share with others in song the scriptures through which he'd been speaking to me. The first song I wrote at OSU was "Abba Father", while sitting alone up in my empty room and feeling a call to speak to those who feel alone and abandoned as orphans. Over the next several years I led worship for the First Baptist college group Campus Ambassadors, and helped occasionaly with Campus Crusade and the Calvary Chapel campus Bible study. I also started a Friday night Praise and Prayer in roving living rooms where we'd pack as many as possible to pray for the campus and sing praise on a night when most were out partying. During this time I wrote and shared many of the worship songs that would later come out on the "Inhabit Our Praises" CD. I continued to share some of the songs I was writing on Sundays at church and the occasional coffee house.
1998
The first offical gig that I had with a band was on May 15, 1998, at Milam Auditorium at OSU where we opened for the band "Thread" (now known as "Wide Awake"), under the name of "Sewing Machine Leg". Playing with me was our drummer Beth Lyall, on bass Ernie Parashis, and on electric guitar my good friend Aaron Koch who later became my roommate before getting married and going on to play in the NFL with the Titans and the Jaguars for a few years. This was a short-lived group and after the gig I moved on to doing more solo acoustic performances at churches and coffee shops.
1999
By January of 1999 I had written over 100 songs and God opened the door for me to be able to do some professional recording through AppleSeed Studio at Applegate Christian Fellowship just outside of Jacksonville, Oregon. On January 26 I did a live interview with Web Staunton for the show "Stay Tuned" on their radio station, KAPL 1300 AM. The interview was interspersed with some of the recordings we had been doing that month and some live performances as well. Things began to snowball at this point and at the end of March I was invited to do a live concert at the Solid Rock Cafe in Ruch, Oregon along with my good friend Kelly Graham who backed me up on congas and additional guitars.
On June 7, 1999, I released my first studio album,
Swirling Waters Tug, on Applegate Fellowship's AppleSeed Records label. This was a collection of 13 songs including "Abba Father", "Nuthin' Funny 'Bout That", and "Without You". I was joined on the album by the incredible musical talents of the two studio engineers Jim Sitter and Demian Norvell who filled in the additional parts. Then on July 10, I was back out at the Solid Rock Cafe with Kelly Graham again to share some of these newly released songs.
This was an amazing time for me as the doors were thrown wide and I was able to spend every possible weekend down at the studio recording the backlog of over 100 songs that I had written while at OSU. Most singers and bands take years between albums, but as I already had enough material for several we kept rolling them out. On July 11, 1999, we released the second full-length studio album entitled, Reach Out, which contained 12 new songs like "Pride", "Pray" and the wedding song "Your Face", that I had written for Aaron Koch and his wife.
Although I had enough songs written at this point to keep busy in the studio for a few years I wasn't sitting back and waiting for all of the old material to get recorded before continuing to write more. So we soon released a 6-song EP that featured some of the new material written since the last release. the Green E.P. was released on September 28, 1999, and included the much requested songs "Green", "Tree", and "I'm Not That Strong".
Two months later we had finished enough new tracks for another full-length release and made some new mixes of some of the songs that had previously been on the EP. Sackcloth Charms was released on November 23, 1999, and included such new songs as the silly "Lazy Laundry Day", and the Russian Gypsy Dance feel of "Pain" along with 10 other tracks to make a full 12 song CD. A few days later on November 27, I was back out at the Solid Rock Cafe performing material from the recently released CD as well as some of my original Christmas carols that we had been working on in the studio.
2000
In 2000, after having released 4 CDs the previous year I slowed down a little and mostly spent time playing at church and coffee shops, finding the odd weekend to drive the 3 hours down to the studio. I opened for Zach Vestnys and his band, "Thru the Roof", up in Salem, Oregon on June 3, and performed my song, "The Vow", on August 26 at my friend Jeff and Rhonda's wedding.
Then on September 5, 2000 we had finally recorded enough of my worship songs to release a full-length worship CD entitled, Inhabit Our Praises. This CD included songs that I had been singing during the previous 10 years at small groups and college Bible studies. Friends who had joined me in our evenings of Praise and Prayer at OSU were happy to finally have a copy of the songs "Most High", "Ruler of My Heart" and the favorite from Matthew 11:28-30, "Come Unto Me". This CD featured 12 other songs, many of which came directly from various Psalms and other passages in scripture, for a grand total of 15 tracks with over an hour of original praise and worship.
I spent the next few months in the studio wrapping up the recording of the remaining tracks slated for my first Christmas album. On December 12, 2000, we released Born Is The King, and it met with instant success. At the time the title track, "Born Is The King", was available for download on MP3.com and was downloaded more than 40,000 times in a few weeks to bring it to the #2 overall ranking on the site out of the more than 1 million songs available. It was beat out at the time by, of all things, a newly released Madonna single. This CD included new arrangements of classics like "We Three Kings", "Silent Night", and "Away In A Manger", plus several originals like "Born Is The King", "When Jesus Was Born", and "Sweet Baby Jesus".
On Christmas Eve I participated in our church's celebration by sharing one of the songs from the Born Is The King CD, "Room In This Inn". We were at the Reed Opera House in downtown Salem, Oregon, and it was beautifully decorated with candles and had a very family-room feel despite the several hundred people in attendance. I was honored and blessed to be able to share in this celebration.
2001
2001 began as a bit of a slow year with me mostly spending time in the studio wrapping up remaining tracks for the Don't Look Back CD. I was able to have several guest musicians join me on this project including my old friend Aaron Koch on electric guitar, Lorn Dunn on some acoustic guitar parts, Sonie Nicholson (now Leamons) from high school with her amazing background vocals, and some friends from the OSU Marching Band who drove all the way down to the studio to help me lay down some horn and sax parts. In August and October I put in a few more concerts down at the Solid Rock Cafe bookending the next release on September 5, 2001, of the all acoustic CD, Unplugged. This CD included several brand new songs that no one had heard yet, as well as a few unplugged versions of songs that had full-band versions slated for the Don't Look Back CD. Tracks included "Stubborn Man", "Sticks and Stones", "Down In A Ditch" and "Shoelaces".
Finally on October 14, 2001, the official release of the 2 year studio project Don't Look Back occured. Applegate Christian Fellowship had sponsored this project on their AppleSeed Records label and the CD was manufactured at the Sony plant here in Oregon. I sang "Broken" at the morning service out in the amphitheatre, and 5 more songs in the afternoon, followed by "No Need to Worry" at the evening service. It was very encouraging to meet a lot of people who had been listening to my music over their radio station down there, but had not had a chance to see or hear me live yet. A big thank you to everyone who made me feel so welcome down at Applegate.
In November and December of 2001 I had several more concerts spread throughout Oregon from HeBrews Coffee House in Portland to Warrenton Christian Fellowship out on the coast to Columbia Gorge Christian Fellowship in The Dalles. I once again finished off the year by sharing some special Christmas music at our annual church celebration in Salem and participated in the choir as well.
2002
In 2002 I started a new job and was too busy to pursue much with my music, but I managed to fit a few concerts in with just me on solo guitar at The New Morning Bakery in Corvallis, Oregon. Then on June 29 I was asked to come and perform at the Waterworks Park Amphitheatre in Vancouver, Washington. I had a three-piece band with me for this outdoor event including Casey Murphy on the bass and Larry London, a local virtuoso and instructor on the drums. We were joined by the Tremolo Cowboys who played the second set of the evening. Then on July 28 I had the great pleasure and honor to play several songs at my ten year high school reunion. Most of my classmates had not seen me in the ten years since graduation and had no idea that I had pursued a musical career, so it was a great surprise to them to hear me play.
2003
In 2003 I took a bit of a hiatus, settling down into my day job of being a Software Engineer for a financial services company. I have continued writing new material and have enough now for several new full-length CDs that will hopefully be forthcoming soon. Since the closure of MP3.com on December 2, I have worked to rerelease some of my earlier CDs that had been available only from that site. Some of them are now available with new artwork packaging and some slightly different track listings. On November 20, 2003 I rereleased my worship CD, Inhabit Our Praises, featuring a better track order and the new song "Restore My Soul". Then on December 5, 2003, I rereleased my Christmas album, Born Is The King, featuring an acoustic version of "O Come All Ye Faithful".
2004
For those who have been keeping up with my prayer requests and news bits on the site you are aware that 2004 was a very rough year for me. Things started off well with another rerelease of one of my out-of-print CDs, Unplugged, on The Ides of March. This rerelease was digitally remastered and featured a new lyric booklet and artwork package along with two new tracks: "Beloved" and "Restore My Soul".
Then in the first week of June my father, who had been living with me for the past 4 years, was diagnosed with inoperable, terminal cancer. He was given only a few months to live, and I appreciated all the prayers and support we received during this time. We were able to track down family from the midwest and several of them were able to come and visit which was a great blessing for both of us. On July 2 I wrote my 200th song,
When I Find Forever, which was written as a prayer from me to my dad that "when I cross the crystal sea" he would be "standing on the shore to greet me".
On July 14 I released my first live album that had been recorded October 12 of 2001 when I was down playing at the Solid Rock Cafe. Live at the Solid Rock Cafe 10.12.2001
featured 10 songs mixed with anecdotes followed by a 7-song worship set (*5 of which were covers) to finish out the evening for a total running time of 79:42! Several of the songs in the set list were unreleased at the time and can still only be found on this live CD.
Then on October 22 my father went home to be with the Lord after a long and painful struggle with the cancer. I was glad I had been able to spend the last several years with him and to be able to give him a home where he could be with those who loved him at the end. In memory of my father I wanted to be able to put some new songs out that I could dedicate to him and so on November 17, 2004 I released More In Store. This CD was a compilation of 6 previously unreleased tracks, 6 re-mastered old recordings, and 3 live songs from a park concert in Vancouver, Washington in 2002. The unreleased songs included "No Need to Worry", "More In Store", and "Parable" among others.
So, after a long break from singing I'm looking forward to scheduling some coffee shop and church tours in the coming new year of 2005, so if you would be interested in having me come and share, please let me know! I hope this little snapshot of the last several years gives you some of the background story for where my music has come from and where it is going in the future. As long as God continues to give me songs to share I will do my best to be faithful in doing so.
