"Go west young man, and live in the country." As Horace Greeley advised, so I have been doing for many years--born in New Jersey, grew up in Almost Heaven, West Virginia, went to college in Kansas, spent some time in California then moved on to Kauai a couple of years ago.

I have been playing in school bands and singing in choirs since grade school. My first instrument was the flute. I switched to piccolo for high school marching band. In college, when a spat between the band conductor and his student son led the entire saxophone section to quit the band, I learned alto and bari sax.

I met Westside Smitty in 2012 and started singing with him and soon after bought a bass guitar and trumpet and learned to play those as well. Working with Smitty and Bob Merkle, who played double bass with us on occasion, has been a tremendous inspiration to me.

Since Smitty left the island and headed back home to swamp country earlier this year, I have been playing with Hope Atz. We play some jazz classics, pop hits and some island style music as well, she on tenor ukulele and me on bass ukulele.