I first came to William & Mary as a freshman in 1979. I had harmonicas in my pocket, but no music theory, and no plan to do anything but play harp in my dorm room or the dorm hallways during downtime between studying and writing papers. I was living in Dupont as a freshman and a guy on my hall named Matt Disilvesto invited me down to his room to hangout and talk. Matt was a classical guitar player and a jazz guitarist and even a bit of a luthier who could make his own guitars. Matt explained to me the theory of playing harmonica in the second position, also known as cross harp, so I could play in tune with other musicians. There was another guy on that hall named John Zerofrost who also played guitar, and I used to jam with John and Matt, both separately and together. I still had no band and wasn't thinking of joining one in 1979.  

 

In 1980, I joined Phi Kappa Tau and met a whole host of musicians both inside and outside of the fraternity, not to mention the guys in Sigma Phi Epsilon next door. I believe Dana Heiberg was the president of Phi Tau and he heard me playing harp in the laundry room of Phi Tau (superior acoustics down there) and he asked me if I wanted to play a song or two on stage with his band, The Katson Blues Band. This is when I met Deeme and Everrett Boyd and the other members of Katson.  I remember that the first song that I played with them was a Bonnie Raitt tune called, "Love me like a man."  The performance went real well and the Katson Blues Band would ask me to come up and play a few songs whenever they played in Williamsburg or on campus, but I wasn't actually a member of Katson.

 

After one Katson Blues Band performance at a Phi Tau party, Kevin Hopkins, Peter Bartlett and Travis Slocumb approached me and told me that they really liked my harp playing and if I would like to join them in a new blues band that they were creating. I said yes and joined my first band, "Corner Street Blues" which later would become the Big Dogs. Of course this is when I met Reid, who I believe was our 3rd bass player. I played with them from 1980 or 1981 until about 1984.  I did not graduate from William and Mary and I returned home to Arlington, VA and finished my economics degree at George Mason University in Fairfax, VA.

 

In 1985 me, Kevin, Pete, and Travis tried to put the Big Dogs back together with a local drummer that I knew named Phil Freeman. Unfortunately, we kept losing bass players and never got to relaunch the band. It was at this time that I bought my first bass and had two friends of mine

 (Scott Causey from high school and Steve Clark from William and Mary) teach me how to play it. By the time that I had gained some proficiency at bass, Kevin and Travis had taken new jobs out of town.

 

About that time (1986) I graduated from George Mason, got married had kids and only played solo and sang at friends parties. In late 1990's and the 2000's I played with my fraternity little brother and bass teacher, Steve Clark and his son Patrick Clark in a basement garage band called Bad Hotel.  The band was quite good but it never left the basement.

 

I think it was 2012 when Reid and Ed started doing the Wrenstock Sunken Garden Homecoming shows allowing the Big Dogs to reunite for a few short but enjoyable years.  I think the Big Dogs last Wrenstock performance was 2014. After the Big Dogs third breakup, I was musically homeless, just out there on the streets with no band, no gigs, no nothing. I think it was either 2015 or 2016 when a kind man named Ed Lull saw me playing harmonica in the gutter and asked me to join his band the Dimeslots.  Actually, I wasn't in the gutter but a bluesman like me can't tell a story like I was trapped in a high paying government job when I was discovered by Ed Lull, a banker. There's absolutely no blues street cred in that.

 

After joining the Slots in 2016, I formed a short lived band called Red Hot Snu-snu for a friends birthday party in 2017 and an outdoor party in 2018. Red Hot Snu-snu was my first band that had my Wife Sabrina on guitar. In 2018 we started a band called the Way 2 Longs that plays in bars, restaurants and micro breweries in the Culpeper-Locust Grove-Fredericksburg areas of central Virginia.

 

Currently, I am a retired economist playing occasionally with my wife in the garage until this Covid-19 pandemic crisis is over, and that is why, I sing the blues.