Bio

      I grew up in North Hollywood, CA watching all the old Western TV show series and playing Cowboys and Indians in the neighborhood. What kid growing up in the 50’s didn’t!?

In junior high, I was lucky to have an older big brother who taught me some chords and popular rock & roll riffs on the guitar. I soon began spending hours every afternoon at the record player and learned all the ‘Led Zepplin’, ‘Cream’ and ‘Yes’ licks that I could handle. But when the ‘California Country’ sound emerged in the late 60’s with groups like ‘Buffalo Springfield’, ‘The Byrds’, ‘Crosby Stills & Nash’ and ‘Poco’ I found my musical home and started feeling the cowboy in me coming back!

      With a deep faith in Jesus I began writing songs at the age of 16 and performing church shows. In 1969 during what would become known as the ‘Jesus Movement’, a Christian Coffee House and the first of it’s kind, opened in Hollywood called ‘The Salt Company’ with a house band by the same name. Songwriter Bob Marlowe and Pam Van Valen were a distinctive driving force behind their music. After they disbanded I became friends and a duo with Bob Marlowe and performed church concerts around SoCal at the age of 18 for a couple of years. It was a very big part of my musical and songwriting growth.

      In the mid 70s I discovered Michael Martin Murphy, Guy Clark, Willis Alan Ramsey, Jerry Jeff Walker and Willie Nelson…all great songwriters that sprang up as a part of the ‘Cosmic Cowboy’ movement out of Austin, Texas.

Just by chance in about 1976 I got tickets to see a group I was curious about called ‘Asleep at the Wheel’ at the famous Palamino Club in North Hollywood that was only a couple miles from my house. That night I wound up watching two shows and was absolutely mesmerized by this thing they called ‘Western Swing’. I left that concert and told myself, that’s what I want to do! 

As I delved deeper into ‘the Wheel's’ music I began to understand the rich heritage that they and bands like ‘Commander Cody and the Lost Planet Airmen’ (another favorite) were carrying on. It all began in the 40s by ‘Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys’. I was hooked!

      In 1978 I was invited to a rehearsal by Pam Van Valen who had seen me in concert several years before with Bob Marlowe. She had been formulating an idea to start a band with Kenny Lee Benson and the rehearsal was a bit of a disjointed mess as most first rehearsals go. Later that evening out by our cars Kenny and I had a long chat about all of our musical favorites we had in common. Both a friendship and the Doo-Wah Riders were born.

      I was blessed to have a 40 year career as guitarist/vocalist with the Doo-Wahs and a partnership with a brilliantly creative songwriter and band leader, Kenny Lee Benson. We traveled the country and occasionally Canada and Europe playing our own brand of Western Swing and a hybrid mix of Country with a Cajun twist. We worked everything from clubs to fairs, performing arts centers and festivals, both as opening acts and headline engagements. We also performed at the Disneyland Resort, Anaheim and Disney World, Orlando (for 10 years), Disneyland, Paris and special Disney movie premieres for ‘Toy Story’ and the ‘Cars’ premiere in Charlotte, NC along with Brad Paisley, Diamond Rio and Chuck Berry!

      Sixteen of those years throughout the 90s and into the 2000s we were the house band for the Academy of Country Music and worked their ‘Celebrity Golf Tournament’, ‘Annual Christmas Party’ and the ‘After Party’ on awards night. We opened for and also served as a back-up band for many of the biggest Country stars of the day.

      After 40 years and finally leaving the Doo-Wah Riders. I've enjoyed performing for the last 6 years with Marty Davis’s, ‘Legend of the Pioneers’; an acoustic Cowboy trio out of Medford, OR that tours extensively throughout the Pacific Northwest. Marty's rich baritone vocals take audiences on a ride through the classics of the legendary 'Silver Screen Cowboys'.

      In 2025 I recorded and released a self produced solo album of my own compositions and dubbed it ‘Uncharted Territory’…cuz that’s exactly what it was for me! It’s a personal and recently self penned ‘Americana/Cowboy’ collection of stories of the Modern and Old West.