I’ve been playing guitar since I was 12.

I grew up around traditional Irish music, sang the Beatles as a kid, discovered Soul, Blues and Southern Rock in high school, played Americana, folk and country music in college, and started writing songs in my twenties.

I moved to Chicago in 1987 and played in a reggae band before starting an original rock band called Animal Farm in honor of my writing hero George Orwell. The next 30+ years were filled with music in the house, in dive bars and eventually in a friendly little club called Hungry Brain, where I now perform semi-regularly with an outfit we call the Bread and Butter Band.

I also began studying jazz and have started writing in the genre but my songs are more inspired by people like John Prine, Bob Dylan and Richard Thompson. Jimi Hendrix, Duke Ellington, Duane Allman and Django Reinhardt remain my all-time musical heroes but there are too many others to list.

I believe music can unite the world like nothing else.