Born into the transient rhythms of a family whose vocation was thoroughbred horse training, early childhood accustomed me to enjoy the fantasy of the gamble and the sparkle of the night life. The family eventually settled on rural Missouri on a farm with a mile long driveway. It was here that I started learning songs and how to play guitar. Sometimes walking out in the field and playing to the uninhibited bovine stares of cows and their cud.

Post high school took me back to the track, this time as a horse groom- in Shreveport Louisiana. It was here in the 80’s that I did my first gigs, in rock clubs where the drinking age was 18. It was in Shreveport that I began working with local soul music legends, Miki Honeycutt and David Egan. This was so educational and fertile time for me to learn the musical vocabularies of Dr. John, Professor Longhair, Snooks Eaglin, Albert King, BB King, etc..

And eventually it was David Egan who was the connecting point to Jo-El Sonnier who at the time was based in Nashville. It was 1990 and it was time to move to Nashville and get on a tour bus. Great music with fabulous musicians- also a very healthy time. My relationship with David Egan was a deep musical friendship. He taught me a lot as a youngster and then eventually I ended up in Louisiana producing recordings for him. In doing so working with Louisiana legends like Dickie Landry, Lil Buck Senegal, Roddy Romero, Sonny Landreth and others. David passed on in 2016 and will be forever missed.

Nashville in the 90’s was a good time, I began to work with local songwriters doing pickup gigs and learning how to play behind songwriters. One of those is a guy that I am happy to still make music with- Kevin Gordon. With Kevin I learned how to approach my guitar playing in a cinematic/scoring type of mentality. In 1999 Kevin asked me to co-produce a record with he and Bo Ramsey. This started a new chapter. This was when I started a love affair with the recording studio and creating music that would live permanently in a recorded environment. The sonics matching the chemistry of the musicians, all matching or intentionally not matching the mood of the lyrics. The possibilities were fascinating and I became and still am obsessed with these constructs.

Soon after I acquired an old MCI 2” tape machine and began recording my own instrumental music as well as friends here in east Nashville. Those early sessions included masterful folks like Richard Bennett, Dennis Crouch, Tim O’Brien, Paul Burch, Paul Niehaus, Lloyd Green and many others.

In the past 15 years I’ve produced more than 50 records,(winning a Dove Award for Best Traditional Gospel Album for Mike Farris’ Shout! Live at the Station Inn) and engineered, mixed and played on many more. All the while still lucky enough to tour as a guitarist and/or multi-instrumentalist with

people like Lee Ann Womack, K.D. Lang, Allison Moorer, Shelby Lynne, Mike Farris, Webb Wilder, Sarah Siskind, Radney Foster, Shannon McNally, Kevin Gordon and many others.

In 2011 I was getting together with some friends and writing and recording instrumental music which eventually involved getting another friend- Melissa Mathes to come over and sing with us. We instantly had a chemistry that made the sum greater than the parts. This was something I’d been fascinated and looking for since I’d begun being interested in making music. We worked hard at it and gigs started coming, audiences started coming and songs started coming through me for this venture. We were only able to release 2 studio recorded songs before the band imploded but with those 2 songs made a half dozen major television or movie appearances and our YouTube videos have and tens of thousands of plays. I am very proud of the time I spent in Luella and the Sun. It was a summation of many of my most personal musical loves.

2019 was good year for touring which involved nearly 2 months straight of touring with Justin Townes Earle in promotion of his album Saint of Lost Causes, which I was lucky enough to play on. Plans to tour with him again in 2020 are in the works now.

Other current projects include writing for my own upcoming recordings and working in the recording studio with artists like Shannon McNally, Mountainwalker, Sam Lewis, Martin Harley and others, along with tour dates coming up with Shelby Lynne, Shannon McNally, Kevin Gordon and my own personal shows around Nashville.