I spent the past 20 years as a full-time stay-at-home dad and part-time musician, but way back in the 1990s, I was a traveling singer-songwriter headlining at folk clubs, colleges and coffeehouses throughout the Northeast and Midwest. Club Passim, The Bluebird Cafe, Eddie's Attic, Caffe Lena, Canal Street Tavern, Cafe Carpe, Illinois Wesleyan University, Skidmore College, WPI, and Brandeis University is just a partial list.
I shared co-bills and "writers-in-the-round" nights with brilliant artists like Kristian Bush, Ron Sexsmith, Shawn Mullins, Dar Williams, and Carrie Newcomer. I was privileged to open for legendary songwriters like Loudon Wainwright III, Richard Thompson, Danny O'Keefe, John Gorka, Cheryl Wheeler, and David Mallett.
With Ellis Paul, Jim Infantino and Brian Doser, I founded End Construction Productions, the seminal Boston songwriter's collective whose album Resume Speed is widely regarded as the catalyst for the resurgence of the New England folk scene in the early 1990s. I recorded three solo albums, this is NOW and yeahyeahyeah, and Take A Breath. My songs appeared on several nationally distributed compilation albums, and I've co-written many songs with folksinger Don White.
In 1994, I formed THE LOOMERS. We released five albums of my songs -- Reeling Down A Road (2010), Tomorrow Today (2006), Shine (2004), Simple As That (1998), and Escalation (1997) -- and all these years later we still manage to gig occasionally. Our music has appeared on CBS, Cinemax, The CW, MTV, NBC, and PBS.
These days, in addition to playing those occasional shows with The Loomers, I run the Second Friday Concerts series at First Church Belmont, do Events Coordination at the Belmont Farmers Market, and I sing and play with THE YELLOW ROOM -- with my wife, Heather Quay, and our friends Jeff Isen, Jason Redi & Tom Maher -- and JONNY KRINGLE & THE WONDALAND BAND, an annual holiday-rock band that delivers money and toys to kids at Children's Hospital.
Now that the nest is empty, I'm looking forward (backward?) to playing some solo gigs. Have guitar, have songs, will travel again.
