|
Welcome to my website! Let me give you a little personal background. I am a singer/songwriter and I currently reside in Traverse City, Michigan. I originally moved to Traverse City in 1978, where I began playing in clubs and restaurants at the tender age of 18. I also started teaching guitar lessons at the Up Front Guitar Gallery, which was located on Front Street in Traverse City. I already had experience as a guitar teacher during my high school years in Peoria, IL, at Strode Music Company. I love to tell everybody that I bought my first car with guitar teaching money!
During those early years in Traverse City I played at “The Keller” which was a popular club in the basement of the old Shields Plantation Restaurant. This club was known for acoustic music, and I played solo there, performing popular country rock music of the late 70’s, such as Dan Fogleberg, America, The Eagles and James Taylor. I played at the Keller on week nights, and on the weekend I played in the Blue Sky Band, which was a four piece country rock band that performed at dance clubs around our area.
During those years I played in many bands with some of the best players in the North. I also played solo acoustic guitar in clubs and restaurants all over northern Michigan. I have told many people that I have played everyplace there is to play in our area. Some places are gone now, or have different names, but there are lots of memories of fun gigs that I have been able to play.
In the early 90’s a local musician and friend of mine, Tim Fuller, moved to Nashville. I stayed in touch with him and decided to go and visit, so that I could see first hand what Nashville was all about. After a one week visit, I knew were I wanted to be, and I moved to Nashville. I tell everybody that my Nashville years are probably the best years of my life, and I miss it constantly.
During the five years I lived there, I learned a lot about song writing, and how the Nashville music machine worked. One of my most treasured Nashville experiences was when I performed at the Blue Bird Café. The excitement of getting to play three of my original songs on that famous stage was intense! I stood in line with 100 people to audition to play there. When I auditioned, one of the judges was Janis Ian, who had a hit in the late seventies called “At Seventeen”. The song I played at my audition was my original song “Hold Onto Your Heart”. When I got the call that I had passed the audition and had a performance time slot, it was like winning the lotto! I was then in the regular rotation for the Sunday night writers night. The staff at the Bluebird grade the performances of the writers, and writers who score higher are invited back. Some writers are invited to play on the first Sunday of the month, which is when the staff invites the “best” of the Sunday night writers to come and play. I got to play a few of those first Sundays. Playing in that room is very fun, it is like doing a short concert. The room is always packed and the audience pays careful attention to the writers. I also got to play there under other circumstances, such as backing up someone who had a showcase, or playing in a round. Tim Fuller and I played there together a few times.
Greg Seaman and Amanda McGill at the Blue Bird Cafe'
I also played at many of the other writers nights around town. Many times I watched songwriters play songs at those writers nights, only to hear the same songs on the radio a few months later. I was also involved in a great club called 3rd and Lindsley, where I was the house soundman, and also hosted a writers night for a short time. It was a privilege to watch some of the top Nashville session players at that club. Reese Wymans played there often, he was Stevie Ray Vaughan’s keyboard player. Reese did not like me at first because we had a bad night getting his sound right. Eventually he warmed up to me, mostly because I helped him carry his equipment in and set it up. I got brownie points for that! Musicians liked to play there because they could play the blues, play loud, and everyone loved it. It is a very popular club.
I met the owner of 3rd & Lindsley at a music store that I was working at called Musicians Wholesale Club, which later became Nashville New & Used Instruments. I also taught lessons at that store, and peaked out at 35 weekly students. Tim Fuller became the manager of that store, and it really took off under his guidance. There was a point in time that Tim and I knew and was in touch with 14 people from Traverse City who lived in Nashville.
I am glad to be back home in Traverse City, playing at the local clubs and teaching guitar lessons. If you get a chance, come out to hear me play some time, I’d love to see you and talk about guitars and song writing. See you soon!
