I began my musical career in the 70's, playing trumpet and guitar, and singing. This site contains mostly that act, which has kept me out of the big time all these years. I played full-time professionally for eight years, until I realized I preferred my meals .... you know, .... daily.
It beats playing dead.
I play live several times a month at an open mic in Yorba Linda, California. It's hosted by Scott Smith and held at the Main Street Restaurant in Yorba Linda every Tuesday night. No cover. No minimum.
I also play at coffee houses and enlightened cereal bars in and around Orange County, and I play Sundays at The Mansion Ristorante in Yorba Linda. Dates are listed in the Upcoming Shows sidebar on this page.
My own favorite has always been Leo Kottke, with a lot more added over the years, like Dan Crary, Ed Gerhard, Tommy Emmanuel, Erik Mongrain, Preston Reed, Andy McKee, Michael Hedges, Don Ross, and on and on.... But I always gave up trying to be like them when my fingers started to bleed. Most of the singer/songwriter/troubadour/balladeer guys have been my biggest style influences, though: Gordon Lightfoot, John Denver, Jackson Browne, Dan Fogelberg, Paul Simon, Stan Rogers, James Taylor, Steven Bishop, Harry Chapin ... guys like that.
My 12-string is a Guild G-312, which I bought new in 1978. It has the original, factory-installed Barcus-Berry Hot Dots mounted in the bridge. I run it through an L.R. Baggs Para Acoustic DI. Later I added a Guild D-55 6-string to the arsenal. I'm fooling around on autoharp and a new mandolin I got for Christmas from my family. Once in a while my daughter lets me play her Strat!
If you didn't like this site, you probably won't like these either:
But you might like this one:
The trio I'm playing in nowadays.
And this site:
This is the celtic group I played in for several years.
And this site: is a collection of the players from that open mic I was telling you about a little higher up on this page.
These are the websites of some of those players. I'm sure you will like them.
And here's an excellent forum about Guild guitars!
