history

I was born a poor black child... No, wait. That's someone else's line.

Okay, I guess the real story begins with my birth in Seattle and childhood in California and Hawaii. A move out to El Paso during my high school years eventually led me to Howard Payne University in Brownwood, Texas, where I met my wife, got married, moved to Washington state and then to Dallas nearly four years later. (How's that for a summary?)

I started my musical career early, singing in youth choirs at church, taking piano and guitar lessons. I didn't get serious about music until age 17, when I forced myself to learn the guitar and write songs. (I got tired of playing air guitar in front of my bedroom mirror for hours on end.) In college, I expanded my musical lexicon, picked up as much as I could from anyone who would sit down with me for more than five minutes and kept honing my skill as a songwriter and a musician.

When I married in 1998 I put down the guitar for a while and focused on work, but it kept calling me, so when I got to Washington I worked on a solo demo project and started playing the coffee shops up there. I continued my solo career when I relocated to Dallas in 2003, and even joined a few other groups in my free time, the Phil Brumley Band and The Killdares. But eventually I started a new band with a college buddy and past bandmate Craig Hinkle and now I devote most of my time to Lost Immigrants.

So that's the story thus far. I continue to write and demo songs I know LI will never record or perform, so I may pursue another solo project in the next 12 months. But we'll see.