At age 10, my parents bought me a $50 drum set and a real ($80) classical guitar. I broke the drum set within two weeks and played air drums for the next 15 years. I kept the classical in fair shape though, and practiced pretty much every day.

By age 11, I had become a "serious" guitar player (heh!). Unfortunately, I didn't start making any MONEY right away, but I suddenly realized that I had the *GIFT of a GOOD EAR* for music / pitches and that I could listen to certain Doobie Brothers, Sabbath, Molly Hatchet, Pat Benatar tunes and figure out the riffs on my own.

Throughout my teens, I played in rock (mainly hard rock and progressive), pop, metal and fusion bands. I got sucked into the "80s guitar hero" thing for a little while, but managed to come out of it with minimal scars. I started studying classical in the 10th grade.

After the 11th grade, I attended the Berklee Summer session and started working on jazz guitar as well.

I returned to Berklee after high school and practiced EVERY day, virtually ALL DAY. I also began working on piano and stretching my vocal abilities.

At age 19, I turned my focus to classical again, studying classical guitar, piano and vocals at the State University of New York at New Paltz. I joined the SUNY New Paltz jazz Ensemble and began applying the chordal skills I had picked up in Boston.

At 20, I joined the Kingston IBM "Big Blue Blues Band" -- a 15 piece jazz orchestra with an impressive set list of old standards and some cool contemporary stuff (like Steely Dan).

At 21, I moved to New York City and worked as a bike messenger while auditioning for local original bands.

At age 22, I recorded a cd with THE ELECTRIC PRESIDENT, an eclectric B-52s - meets - Ramones - meets X - meets Iron Maiden (! ... ?) band that circled the Greenwich Village circuit for about a year.

Age 23 (Spring/Summer of ' 92) -- I was broke and unemployed and living in the attic of Patsy's parents' house in Saugerties (THANK YOU *FOREVER,* BLUNDELL FAMILY!!!) wondering what the future held for this confused musician.

At 24, I became focused on my own original material and recorded, produced (and financed) my first original cd with the progressive hard rock band THE GALLOWS HUMOR -- a cross between Rush, King's X, Primus and Alice in Chains.

At 25, I began playing drums again and recorded/ produced/ financed another Gallows Humor cd (as guitarist / vocalist)

At 26 I picked up the bass guitar and started nicking Rush and Led Zep chops on that as well.

At 27, I recorded another cd (guitarist/vocalist) with the Steely Dan / Phish influenced ESTA BLISSHEAD, another upstate NY / NYC original project.

At age 28, I moved to the midwest and hopped on a 1975 school bus to go out on the road (as a guitarist) with JOHN DOE, a hard rock cover band with a repertoire of 90 songs and fronted by the most dynamic and versatile female singer (Alisa B Anderson) ever to walk ANY stage in the U.S. ... EVER.

At 29, I found myself broke and living in a $4,000 trailer in Rochester, Minnesota, working at a hospital emergency room and spending free time honing bass, drum and acoustic fingerstyle guitar chops.

At age 30, I joined SWING STREET and the ROCHESTER BIG BAND, as well as playing solo acoustic gigs (Michael Hedges meets Gordon Lightfoot with a touch of Christopher Parkening) around town at restaurants and weddings.

*** I also got married to a beautiful Minnesota chica!!!! ***

YYYEEEEEEAAAHHHHH!!!!!

At age 31, I quit Swing Street (they kept telling me to "TURN IT DOWN!!!" -- and there was never any money involved) and started THE POSTURES, a cover band that specialized in Steely Dan, Doobie Bros., Led Zeppelin, Stevie Wonder and Stevie Ray Vaughn.

At 33, I quit THE ROCHESTER BIG BAND (they kept telling me to "TURN IT DOWN!!" and there was never any $$$ involved) and began work on a 2nd ENZYME CD.

At 34, I started up a ZZ TOP / Texas tribute band FANDANGO which plays40+ ZZ tunes as well as Stevie Ray Vaughn, Buddy Holly and some Texas based others.

Around age 37, I came to the sad conclusion that Fandango was not going to be a success -- very few people in SE MN bars want to hear a band play Southern Rock for 3 hours, apparently -- so Fandango borrowed THE AMAZING MARY LIESER from Incognito and formed SUZY CHAOS, a band that performed Bohemian Rhapsody, Call Me and Barracuda better than any other MN band (in my humble opinion). I was super proud of this band, HOWEVER...

By the age of 41, I decided to give up the cover band / bar band life -- for sanity sake -- and disbanded Suzy in summer of 2010.

So, for the time being, just working on originals and teaching (privately and at Crossroads College in Rochester).