I'm an acoustic guitarist and singer/songwriter as well as ringleader and Chief Instigator of the Emerald City Jug Band and its slightly more more pop-oriented offshoot, The Rootsters, itself an outgrowth of the now defunct Teeth, Hair & Eyeballs.

As a solo, I play "Roots, Blues & Rants," an eclectic collection of traditional and pop tunes from ragtime to rap (OK, folk rap) and influenced by world beats. My material includes whatever comes to mind, from sappy love songs to weird dreamscapes to (leftie) political rants. For much of my career I immersed myself in finger-style blues and folk music, but for the last decade or so my tunes have had a way of coming out however they want - jazz, rock, reggae, country, or whatever; the song tells me what it needs. (And here I thought I was in complete control!) My ambition is to evoke feelings, start you thinking, and make you laugh - sometimes within the same song.

My instruments are a flat-top steel guitar, a cut-away Dobro, and a homemade traveling electric guitar that fits into a suitcase or backpack and doubles as a lap steel. My specialty is the bottleneck slide guitar, and Delta blues is what I love to play on it. (I've led the Bottleneck Slide Guitar Workshop at the Northwest Folklife Festival since 1990.) Occasionally I'll pick up a mandolin to add flavor to a song, and in the jug band I'm starting to get pretty good at playing jug on some tunes. Hey - who else do you know playing funk jug? (Please pronounce those last two words clearly and slowly.)

My anti-war CD, "Rant - Journey - Anthem" is still available, along with my first, "Long Way Home."

Relax, make yourself at home, and feel free to look around. If you have a suggestion or there's something you'd like to see that isn't here, please drop me a line and I'll do my best to accomodate you. Find out where I'm playing next or listen to my songs. And thanks for stopping by!