Musical Biography

Musical Bio

I have been playing music since 1986, when I learned to play the saxophone. I had to take a semester long course in music appreciation or something like that. It was one of those courses in high school where everyone had to take it at some point and where you learned to play the soprano recorder ( you know...the flute thingy made of plastic that sounded horrible if you blew into it too loud). Well, Mrs. Gibson, the chorus teacher, was teaching the class and noticed that I was pretty good at it. She asked me if I had thought about being in the band. I told her that sounded like a pretty good idea. We went and talked to the band director, who had office hours at that time of day. He agreed to teach me how to play the alto saxophone during that period, so I wouldn't have to adjust my schedule at all. The following summer, I learned how to march.

At about the same time, I also taught myself how to play the piano (with help from my mom and Joey Allred, a friend of mine). My mom had always had a piano in the house, so I tinkered with it. I imagine that it drove her crazy. See, I would get an idea, then I would play it over and over...and over....and over.... and over.....and over again....until I thought of something else to go with it. At that point, I would have to try out how the new idea linked to the old one, so I would play them both...again ....and again...and again....and again. ( You get the idea....). I finally bought a keyboard, a Roland synthesizer (well, my mom put it on her credit card, but I paid her back). The deal was that I give her $40 a week until it was paid for. I think it cost $1100 or something like that, so this was something that was going to take a while to pay off, especially at 16 years old. I was working at Delchamps at the time and there were some weeks where I paid Mom $40 and put $10 in gas into my car, which wouldn't have been so bad, except that that week I took home a whopping $53. Yeah, a whole $3 to spend on myself for the week. I'll try not to spend it all in one place. It was pretty cool, though. I had both the keyboard and the piano to play at the same time.

The following year, I signed up for Jazz band, initially playing alto saxophone. Midway through the course, the bass player had quit, electing to enroll at PJC as a dual enrollment student. That left an opening for bass. At that point, I was getting tired of playing the sax, so I volunteered for the bass slot. There were two problems though; one, I didn't know how to play the bass and two, I didn't have a bass. I initially didn't own a bass, but I wanted to learn. I talked to an assistant manager at Delchamps (where I was working at the time) and he had a bass; furthermore, it was for sale, as his wife was pregnant with their first child and they needed both the money and the space. I think he let me have the bass, case and amplifier for the grand sum of $150. The amp was old, the bass even older. I believe it was a Gibson Epiphone and the thing was HEAVY! But it served its purpose; I learned how to play. Not that that was any easy task; I had to now learn bass clef in addition to treble clef for the saxophone for concert band/jazz band. Initially, I was confusing the two clefs, which wasn't a big problem in concert band (made some nice harmonies a third up), but BOY , did it mess things up in Jazz band!! After about two weeks or so, I managed to straighten it all out in my head. Once the music bug bit me though, I had to work on more. I signed up for a percussion class, mostly learning the snare drum (rudiments and stuff like that). It was OK, but I was hoping to learn more complicated rhythms to augment my bass playing.

By the end of the year, I was working on four different instruments, in four different bands. It was a sheer miracle that I even graduated High School. (Looking back at those transcripts, I failed classes that I don't even remember taking...could be why I failed those classes.) However, I was having a grand old time, playing in Concert band, the In School Jazz Band, the after school jazz band, a rock band called "Bad Habit" (playing keyboards) AND an all original band called "24thBay" with some friends of mine. My career was off to a good start...

Five weeks of summer vacation and then I went to hell, otherwise referred to as Basic Training. I had decided that I would join the Army. Basic training put a great deal of stress on me, and I wrote a TON of music during that two month period. After Basic Training came AIT or Advanced Individual Training (where you learn how to do your specific job). There was a bit more freedom there, than in Basic Training. I spent a great deal of time in the recreation center, working on music and continuing to write songs. The stress level was diminishing, but still more than what normal people deal with in the civilian world. Shortly before leaving Fort Gortdon, GA (where AIT was held), I had orders for South Korea. I had NO desire to go at all, and thought that the All Army Soldier Show would be my answer. I had heard about it while in the rec center and went to audition, only to discover that the auditions were over. I swore that before I left the Army, I would go on tour with them. Almost three years later, I did. More to come on the musical bio...

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