As a young teenager, I was exposed to all the rock you can get while in junior high. I had a good time cranking my Rush and Led Zeppelin albums. When I became interested in broadcasting, I started volunteering at an all-volunteer radio station in Champaign-Urbana, WEFT. There, I was exposed to all kinds of music I didn't even know existed: folk, bluegrass, bebop jazz, pop music from Africa. It opened an entire new world to me. I was a sponge, checking out everything I could. My radio shows would have a highlife tune from Ghana, followed by Little Feat, followed by Miles Davis. It was an eclectic show on an eclectic station.

Started playing in groups in 1984. We were young and thought we were making Great Music. In 1986, a master drummer from Ghana, Oscar Sulley, offered a class in traditional drumming at the local community college. I signed up for it, as did all my musical companions. It changed our lives. Soon, we were playing in our first REAL band, playing highlife music from Ghana. We learned a lot about a culture far removed from ours, developed some musical chops and had one hell of a good time. Thank you, Oscar.

I've been in several folk, rock, and jazz bands throughout the years, enjoying my playing time in Champaign-Urbana as well as Springfield, Illinois. I've played with many great local musicians over the years, and I am grateful for all they taught me. Even managed to be on a few LP's and CD's in my time. Look for them in the cutout bins of your favorite local record store.

The Studio:

The heart of the studio is a Roland VS-880 with built-in effects processor. It's old, but it works great. Thanks to other recent developments, I am learning about the Audacity line of software and am beginning to play with that.

My guitars are a 1986 Ibanez Roadstar II, a no-name Chinese electric that I just LOVE, an Alvarez acoustic, a Madeira acoustic-electric, and a sweet little Kay acoustic-electric that was literally saved from the scrap heap. You can see it in the photo at the top of this page. The action on it is way too high for regular playing, but it's PERFECT for slide work. I run all of these guitars through a Roland Cube-60 amp and have a couple outboard effects pedals and a wah-wah pedal.

Other gear includes a Fender bass, Artisan lap steel, a small Mapex drum kit, and lots of hand percussion: 4 congas, djembe, dumbek (or darbuka, if you prefer), tar, bodhran, cuica, berimbau, balafon, slit drum, digeridu, shekere, west African talking drum, and numerous cowbells and shakers.

Here's a few 64k MP3's of my work. I play all instruments, unless noted:

Sweetbean Afrique Added July 9, 2005

Zonyneh Added November 4, 2005

Don't Ask Questions Recorded Spring 2005, added July 5, 2007

Sweetpea Recorded spring 2005, added July 5, 2007 (w/ Doug Berkman, bass)

Stones Recorded March 2007, added July 5, 2007

I've been talking about my solo CD for about 3 years now. I'm still working on it. However, it WILL be released. Someday. No, really.