Minnesota born and bred,  my creative life was nurtured and inspired as a child by the lakes and woods of my home state. 

As a kid I listened to old time country 78 rpm records with my father and later in my youth, I picked up the guitar and banjo.  I was initially drawn to traditional folk music and popular standards, but after studying classical music and ethnomusicology at the U of M, I left college for a grand adventure!  It was the 60’s and I joined a radical experimental theater group, The Firehouse, to become its musical director and composer. My work and experiences in The Firehouse Theater were and continue to be such an amazing, powerful influence in my creative life. 

The Firehouse specialized in audience participation, psychodrama and uncommon physicality.  When the theater decided to become a traveling company in 1969, we all moved to San Francisco, working and living communally in a spacious Victorian mansion.  We travelled the country and being the 60’s, we were once banned at Notre Dame University for using nudity in one of our productions.

My musical influences soon expanded beyond Woody Guthrie to now include Karlheinz Stockhausen.  With The Firehouse Theater, I wrote and directed my first opera “Doomeager”

In 1973,  I moved to Europe for two years, playing in Irish Pubs and later moving to Amsterdam where I managed to sign up for a late-night appointment experimenting and composing with the electronic synthesizers at the famous Steim Studio.  It was magical!  I later landed a gig in Copenhagen where I wrote the opera, “Bone Songs.”

Later moving back to my hometown of Minneapolis, I worked as a composer and music director with the Palace Theater, At the Foot of the Mountain, Heart of the Beast and the Cricket Theater.  While at the Heart of the Beast, I wrote “Lightning”, a puppet opera. My sweet daughter, Megan, born during The Firehouse’s sojourn in San Francisco, became a theater kid in Minneapolis, often accompanying me during some of my days rehearsing. 

I also did extensive teaching in the public schools throughout Minnesota as an Artist-in Residence and was an official composer for the City of Minneapolis for a year.  During this time, I also taught guitar and banjo at the West Bank School of Music.

In 1999, I moved with my wife to Northern Colorado where I now live. I became an avid mountain hiker, photographer and later a painter. I have spent countless days hiking and exploring at high altitudes in Rocky Mountain National Park, back to the natural world for inspiration.

My music making has become studio oriented where I have recorded solo acoustic and electronic music of all styles.  I have produced over 60 CDs of original music which I culled from over 6500 recordings.  Quite obsessive I might add.    My instruments include  electric guitars, classical guitars, fretless guitar, banjo, ukeleles, various flutes, harmonicas, keyboards, voice, computer, and any sound producing devices that I can lay my hands on.

Watercolor painting is my latest activity for the calming influence it brings me. The paintings, like my music, are inspired by all the beauty that surrounds me.