I grew up at the Jersey shore (aka Springsteen Country) but moved to the Harrisburg, PA area just before starting high school. A few months prior to the move, I begun fumbling around on my mom's acoustic guitar, finding notes that sounded ‘right’ while plucking along to MTV videos. The fumbling turned more serious later that year when I heard a stereo version of The Beatle's ‘Day Tripper’ on an FM oldies station, void of vocals due to a broken bedroom stereo speaker. The riff, Paul's thumping bass, Ringo's romping drum fills…. I was hooked. Guitar and the Beatles both became quick obsessions.
While learning guitar, I also began playing drums and joined my first band (Gravity's Pull) as a drummer, cutting my teeth on Beatle, Bowie and Billy Joel classics. I soon developed a love for bands like Rush, The Allman Brothers, Frank Zappa and Phish as well as song crafters like Paul Simon, CSN and Joni Mitchell . Improvisation, composition and fancy new chords became a focus. While earning a degree in Communication Studies from West Chester University in 2001 and landing a post production job at a television production company in Philadelphia, the economic collapse of 2009 afforded me the opportunity to make a career change to what I enjoyed most - music! I began teaching drums and guitar in 2010 while playing live gigs and landing side jobs composing music for cable networks and independent media projects (see MEDIA COMPOSITION page). I have since added ukulele to my teaching repertoire while continuing to perform throughout the Philadelphia area as a solo performer and with my acoustic duo Shady Groove. We perform every Tuesday evening at Autograph Brasserie in Wayne and I cohost an open mic that happens every Wednesday evening at the Glenside VFW.