This Is A Long Journey

It started out in Eastern, Iowa, where I grew up in a musical family. My father had an old national guitar he strummed and played Hank Williams Sr tunes. Our family record player saw alot of Hank Sr, as well as Buck Owens, and Peter, Paul, and Mary. By the time I was 8, the Beatles broke big and I was influenced by their music. 

I started writing lyrics around the age of 13. Most of it was a stumble thru adolescence. 

My early memories in music were painful stumbles. Around 1977 I was in my first actual band that didn't embarrass me, called Casino. Mostly covers with a few originals. Guitarist Dan Westerbeck was a driving force in that band. Others were Gregg Kirk, Dave Bellile, Randy Nissen, Andy Weber. Mostly hard rock. 

I visited Austin, Texas in 1980, and fell in love with the original music here. My first Austin band was Up Periscope, lasting about 3 yrs. We played bills with Butthole Surfers, Timbuk 3, True Believers,  Zeitgeist, Drs Mob, part of the Beach Caberet scene. I struggled in the 1980's and worked construction jobs. I didn't have an easy life, but I was happy, footloose, and fancy-free. I was writing and playing original music.