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I first picked up a guitar at the rebelious age of 15, An Ibanez Roadstar II series electric guitar(which I still own), and began learning parts of songs by heavy metal greats such as Judas Priest, Iron Maiden and Scorpians. Man, I sucked. With no formal guitar training opportunities, I just plugged away for a couple years by learning tab from guitar player magazines.

In 1988, stationed in Okinawa Japan in the USAF, I began my song writing phase when an A.F. friend, Gus Gaudiello, convinced me to put down the electric guitar, pick up an acoustic guitar, share a bottle with him and start writing and singing original music. We wrote a few tunes here and there as he coached my alto-end back-up vocals to harmonize with his gritty charcoal lung tenor voice. He introduced me to acoustic folk like The Dead, Neil Young, Bob Dylan. I was clueless to this genre at the time. I fell in love with it.

-time passed, many strings snapped, mucho alchohol consumed-

Back in the states 1990, I continued to write and learn acoustic based songs even though I didn't know the why behind the tunes, my ear got pretty good at the how. Played a lot of house parties and met a cat from Japan, Shige Tanihata, who played also. We teamed up in '92 and had our 1st official "gig" at a coffee house in Berea, Ohio. I remember one guy in the audience commented, "you guys are pretty good, but you need to play original music." So Shige and I started writing originals.

In 1993 I got a call from a friend from my high school days. Steve Nelson, he asked, and I quote, "Ya wanna be a rock-star?" Hook, line, and sinker, I fell for the ploy and became one of the singer/rhthym-guitar/song-writers for 'The 4 Cylinders' in Cleveland, Ohio. Another whole new genre of music was taught to me by the band. 80's-90's underground. REM, the Cure, lemonheads, etc, etc...again I loved it. But, 4-1/2 years, 2 CD's, 2 drummers, 1 bongo player, 3 bass players, 1 name change to 'The Cylinders' (we dropped the "4" at 5 members), 4 guitar players later, we broke up. The drummer, Brian Biggs, and I tried to get the thing going again to no avail. I moved away. Far away. Back to "the rock", Okinawa Japan.

A phone call from an old A.F. buddy, James, actually brought this move on. He said, "So when you comin back? You a muscian right? carpenter right? You drink right? Your perfect for the job. I need you here 2 weeks ago!" I fell for the ploy. Damned ploys. Always gettin me. He owned a live-house/bar/club called The Hideaway and gave me a job as club-manager. Between managing drinks, I started a solo acoustic thing which went well occasionally.

In 1999, I met an okinawan player, Ikari Ishihara, who wanted to jam, so we formed the acoustic duo 'Acoustic Static', which went very well occasionally. We then reformed 'The Cylinders' in 2000 which lasted until the bass player left the island and the drummer decided he would rather beat the drums to death in a death metal band. That split us up in 2001.

Went sometimes duo-act/ sometimes solo-act on and off with Acoustic Static from 2001-2002. Then we met Maxx Gallo. A drummer. From Queens, NYC. Said to us, "you guys need a drummer." So we formed/reformed the trio 'Acoustic-Static'. That lasted until the bass player got a wild hair up his ass and thought he could be the next greatest frontman for his own project. No offense, but he really could NOT sing. Still can't. Hell of a bass player though. So I guess egos split us up.

The drummer , Maxx and I formed 'Witsend' ('03-'04) because we were at our wits end with the music scene and all the bull shit it carries with it. Good band we had, but in the end, all the bull shit we were trying to avoid was the bull shit dragged us down. We split up because Mr. Guitar player didn't know what he wanted and Mr.drummer would rather beat his drums to death than just play them.

In 2004 I took a break from "the scene" and quit playing for a year and a half.

Then I got another call...from a drummer...the same drummer that wanted to break his snare head every night a year and a half ago. He said, and I quote, "hey, what are you doing, you playin? I need you to be my singer." I again fell for another ploy and joined a band we called the Shima-Gais. This band had a good 3 year run, (May 2005 - Aug. 2008)and we'd like to think we made a dent in the trash 2 street music scene...then, as always my luck with bands, the BS started overflowing the "fun" of the band. I opted for "the door" rather than being pissed off and stressed out most of time. At least I still have my music on my mind at the end of a shitty day at work and that makes it all worth while.

I have most always been the frontman on the stage. (For some reason, some think I can sing pretty good) But as of late with the new band I am currently working with, The OG's, I have opted to be the guy in the back just relaxing and playing guitar and throwing in some backing vox! Our line up is Dave Havely, singer (damn good at lead vox) and Roy Helvinstine on acoustic lead and rhythm (hell of a song writer!). Oh yeah and of course...me...on acoustic rhythm and beginners lead. I was never much of a lead player so I'm hoping this experience will give me time to learn something that i should have learned years ago. Lead guitar. More to come as this situation plays out!

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