Experience, Instinct, and Letting Music Speak First –

You’ve got new releases on the horizon. How do you know when a song is ready to leave your hands and head out into the world, especially after living with music for as long as you have?

Yes! I actually have a new release on all internet music stores. It dropped on December 24th at 8 a.m. The single “Hav’n A Rock & Roll Christmas” has been described as: A high-energy holiday rocker built for dance floors, family parties, and anyone who thinks Christmas should come with a little more guitar and a lot more groove.

I live with my tunes throughout the entire writing process—from chord structure to finding the melody, recording, and mastering. By the time it’s all done, the song and I are one. I mean, it’s all I’ve thought, sang, and dreamed about for weeks. So it’s like one of your kids: you just know when you’ve done all you can and it’s time to send them out into the world.

With blues, gospel, country, pop and rock all sitting comfortably in your wheelhouse, what decides the direction of an upcoming release, mood, message, or simply where your voice feels most at home that day?

The direction of a song comes from where my heart and mind have been lately. Sometimes it comes from world events and stories that have impacted me in a big way, such as “Nothing Great Comes From Hate.” But I can be in a loving, romantic mood and write, or on more of a spiritual plane. Whatever the mood, there are usually lyrics in my mind. If I’m feeling sadness, it’s probably going to be a blues tune, perhaps fused with country. If I’m feeling connected to my higher self, then Gospel. And so on. I really do like melding genres together to find the perfect expression of what I have in mind.

After decades of playing bar rooms, dinner theatre and travelling shows, how have those early, often gritty environments shaped the way you write and record music now?

Yes, after 40 years now of performing—mostly in dinner show settings and bars in the first five or six years—I’ve experienced so much love through performance. I’ve seen people cry over an Elvis tune or a Roy Orbison rendition of mine, and I’ve learned that what Elvis once said is true: “Music heals.” So I write from the heart with the listener in mind. I want the song to be like being at my show. I want it to reach out and touch them.

When people listen to your new material, what part of your life or outlook do you quietly hope they pick up on, even if they cannot quite put it into words?

When people listen to my music, I hope they pick up on the intention, which is always about bettering our world, appreciating what we have, helping someone else, and accepting all people. Or, as I like to condense it down to: Love. Just loving ourselves and others. I know darkness, and I know light. I choose to operate in the light, share it, and go to it.

You’ve clearly lived inside music rather than standing at arm’s length from it, how does that lived experience show up in your upcoming songs, lyrically or emotionally?

I think lived experience shows up in my songs through what every person goes through: struggle, doors shut in our face, heartbreak, loss, success, laughter—all the emotions a human being feels. The difference is I always sit down and write about whatever I’m feeling, and then it turns into music. Music heals my heart, or it extends the joy. It’s a gift to someone else that brings happiness to someone I may never meet. So that’s giving without expectation, and it’s the most fulfilling feeling I can get.

Do you still feel that same spark when starting a new record as you did earlier in your career, or has excitement changed shape over the years?

I still feel the same excitement and profound satisfaction creating music as I ever did. I think a lot more now, as I have a much better understanding of how to get my idea across and turn it into music.

Vocally, you move comfortably across multiple styles, when working on your next releases, do you think about serving the song first or letting your voice lead the way?

When I was younger, I had a big, strong voice—mid to tenor—voice and I loved showing it off. But now I’m pretty happy being a mid to high baritone. Yes, these days it’s more about the music first, then finding my part in it.

Looking ahead, what feels most important to you right now with these forthcoming releases, reaching new listeners, saying something honest, or simply enjoying the act of making music at this stage of your life?

Looking ahead, what feels important is just writing music that supports people and touches them. I mean real art. I’m not interested in writing music for the sake of getting famous or charting, or trying to sound a certain way that the algorithms might like. I just want to get what’s in this heart out. I know the people that like my music enjoy it when I’m taking them on an emotional journey.