People like personal stuff in these bios. Nosey, huh? OK, here it is. I was born and raised in Milwaukee. Oprah went to my high school. So did Kato Kaelin. I grew up listening to and singing a lot of Yiddish, Russian and religious music. From the age of three until about twelve, I was obsessed with top 40 pop. Then I heard Muddy Waters, and that was that. I've sung a fair amount of classical music and opera. I've lived in the US, Israel, and Italy. I'm loved and cherish those that love me. I'm honest to a fault except when I'm lying. I can't dance worth a damn, but love it when people dance at my shows. I tend to hang with very funny, very neurotic, very smart, somewhat dysfunctional, but charming people. Southern charm works, too. In another life, I was a professor at a school well known for its basketball team. OK, enough about personal stuff!
I started out doing a lot of alt-country and put out two albums, one electric based - Accept No Imitations - and one acoustic - Hummingbirds in Flight. They raised some attention in the world of arty twang. There were some nice quotes from papers like the Real Detroit Weekly ("This guy has mega chops: a beguiling cross-breeding of blues, rock and bluegrass, cemented by lyrics that recall Cohen and Zevon and a voice that twangs like Willie Nelson.") and the Cincinnati CityBeat (Critic’s Pick, "It's like listening to Muddy Waters and Hank Williams 78s on a really great stereo."). The Village Voice gave me a "Choice Cut" in 2005. Americana-UK made Accept No Imitations one of their Best of 2004. Hummingbirds in Flight made Freight Train Boogie's Best of 2005.
But I'm out of my three chords and the truth phase, have dropped the faux Southern accent, am singing my butt off, and am exploring the sounds I loved as a music obsessed kid poring over the record collections of dads of friends. I put out a new album - American Vernacular - in 2007. The music blog Obscure Sounds said, "Simply put, American Vernacular is an unpredictable gem. You will not find many others this year that mix lyrical ingenuity with instrumental brilliance in such a passionate display." Listen and I think you'll agree with those spiffy remarks.
I just finished a new album focused on 40s and 50s jazz and blues styles with oh so funny and clever lyrics called Fundamental. We're going to sit on this album for a while before releasing it, probably until January 2009. But if you ask real nice, I'll send you a copy.
