I began playing music in twenty-thirteen when my grandparents purchased me a classical guitar. It that same year, through the generosity of my parents, grandparents, and a local benefactor, I began taking classical guitar lessons. I was lucky enough to have virtuoso guitarist, conductor, and composer, Terry Hunt for my music instructor. Lessons were on a weekly basis, with recitals held at least once a year. Over the course of my studies, I learned to play the classical guitar with proper form, read sheet music, and I obtained a fundamental understanding of music theory.

At the age of fourteen, I began pursuing the mandolin, and at fifteen, took up the fiddle. With these endeavors, my musical horizon began to widen. Having grown up listening to Irish and American folk music, the expansion was natural enough. A desire to incorporate singing into my musicality led me to take vocal lessons for a time. Although my fingers found considerable initial objection to this marriage of instrumentality to vocality, patients prevailed. With time, I was able to sing and play rhythm/lead guitar and mandolin proficiently enough to begin performing. I started out simply sitting in with my guitar mentor at open mics, after which I performed in my own slots. Then, eventually, I helped form a trio consisting of myself and two other local musicians; The Wednesdays, as we called ourselves for a time, performed paid gigs at numerous establishments around the greater Twisp area: pubs, resorts, and a local music festival.

In twenty-twenty-two, I competed in and won the Christine Cherrington Memorial Merit Scholarship for classical guitar. My classical guitar lessons continued up to the time I graduated from high school in twenty-twenty-three. From that point, my interest shifted almost wholly from classical to American folk and bluegrass.

I began traveling all around the state of Washington to attend bluegrass festivals and fiddle camps. These events taught me much about playing music with other people. I learned the universal communication gestures used in bluegrass jams and improved my improvisational skills greatly in these settings. In the fall of twenty-twenty-three, I spent two weeks traveling around Ireland with my mandolin. This journey presented a brilliant opportunity to partake in the vibrant jam (or “session”) culture of the Irish public houses. For the past few years and up to the present, I have been performing solo gigs at pubs and festivals around my home and the surrounding municipalities of rural Washington. 

With the exceeding generosity of a local benefactor, and the producing genius of Terry Hunt, I had the opportunity to begin recording an album in the spring of twenty-twenty-four. After a brief interruption to the recording process due to my job as a wild land firefighter, the recording was finished by end of that same summer. Fortunately enough, that time away provided the space I needed to write three more songs that appeared on the album: Carpenter, Motorcar and Mockingbird. The track list for the album contains two covers: Long Hard Road and The Hills That I Call Home, both of which are graced my the brilliant harmonies of Leah Larson Kominak. Apart form these two songs and the traditional The Lakes of Pontchartrain, all of the material on the album is original. Carnation Lily Rose reached all major streaming platforms in February twenty-twenty-five.  

Again I had the opportunity to return to Ireland in the spring of twenty-twenty-five, where I traveled the country with my family and performed as a duo with my good friend Elia Howard. In Co. Tipperary, we played a set and interview on the Tipp Midwest radio. We also performed at the iconic traditional Irish pub Dick Mack's in Dingle, Co. Kerry. 

My love of music stems from the fact that it reflects the beauty of God, not only in the harmony of tones produced but also in any of the instances that it engenders when multiple people are unified in an activity with a common and benevolent end. And for the gift of music I am deeply grateful. 

May all glory be to God, the Giver of Life and Master Artist.