Early Years
I started playing guitar in the late 1950s when I was about six years old in the Greater Boston area. In the late 1950's One of my teenage cousins, Kenny, was in a local rock group and gave me an old 3/4 size Stella acoustic guitar and taught me some chords. I was excited by the sounds I could make by de-tuning the strings and strumming away. Over the years, I dedicated my after-school time to practicing the guitar for hours and learning songs by listening to records.
My mother was very supportive of my musical interests and helped me in the early 1960's to join what I can only refer to as a vaudeville troupe. The troupe would perform at hospitals, prisons and nursing homes with everyone getting their ten minutes or so to sing, play an instrument, tap dance, juggle, tell jokes, etc. That experience gave me an opportunity to learn how to perform in front of people.
I continued performing throughout my younger years at school functions and church events, singing popular tunes and standards of the era until the Beatles hit the scene. I promptly formed my first band in the 6th grade, “The Mosquitos”. In 7th grade, getting more serious about the idea, I formed a three piece band (two guitars and drums, “The Cobras”) with a couple of friends and we began performing at junior high, highschool and church dances. We didn’t have a PA system so we played instrumental arrangements of pop hits and plugged our microphones into our guitar amps for a few vocal numbers. “The Ventures” tunes were a staple of our song list. In the 9th grade we added a friend on bass guitar, got our first PA (a Bogen power amp with 2 Jensen horns) changed our name to “The Reactions”, and performed almost every weekend. We even played a few clubs in Boston before we graduated high school in 1970.
New England
After high school, working consistently in the New England area from my South Shore home area in Massachusetts, I performed both as a solo acoustic singer/songwriter in area coffeehouses and as a member of a variety of rock bands until 1989. Some highlights during that period include: “Mogan David & The Grapes of Wrath”, a horn band with some Berklee players; a band called “The Last Rush” with Roger Griffin, Jimmy Paiva and Steve Smith (later of Jean Luc Ponty, the Buddy Rich Big Band and “Journey”.....OK.....I am name dropping a little bit here); opening for artists such as Jonathan Edwards, James Taylor, Gordon Lightfoot, Aztec Two Step, and Springfield, Mass area favorite, Fat; touring the Northeast with the show band, "Rave", performing with one of New Jersey's top country rock bands, "Randy Gurley and Brother Fox", and as a member of "New Morning", one of New England's top rock bands in the early to mid1970's; late 70's club band “Choir”; playing clubs and touring the New England College circuit in the 1980's with the acoustic trio, "Beat Feat" and later the acoustic duo, "Carter and Winters", earning a nomination for the National Association of Campus Activities' College Entertainers of the Year award and receiving several awards in the American Songwriting Festival competition.
Florida
Moving to St. Augustine in 1989, I began working my way into the local music scene in 1990 with the help of Don Oja-Dunaway of the Milltop Tavern & Listening Room, Barry Gaines, owner of Scarlett O’Hara’s downtown and Passport Joe’s at the beach, and Heinz Daughth, owner of Mi Casa Café on St. George Street.
Through March of 2020, I continued to play solo at Mi Casa every Saturday afternoon, on the brick patio under the shade trees, for new owner, Marney, (where the last set jam usually included Gary Bouchard, Bill Eyerly and Dewey Via - with occasional visits from “Uncle Charles” Stansel on harmonica) and performed regularly at the Milltop. I also played at The Reef as a duo with Mark Richey (of “Sashay” and “The Impediments” fame) and had along and wonderful relationship with the Creekside Dinery as a solo and with a variety of local bands.
Some highlights during this period are: performing at several Earth day celebrations hosted by Peg McIntire, the 1st and 2nd annual Gamble Rogers Folk Festival (now the Gamble Rogers Music Festival) in 1996 & 1997, and some return performances at the festival in the years since. I’ve also had he pleasure of playing with many talented musician’s over the last 30 years or so:
1994-1995: “The King Kornbread Blues Band" w/ the legendary Vince Jeffs
1995-1996: “The Seiners”w/ Will Besley, Brady Green & Rob Piazza
1996: “The Mike Hart Trio” w/Mike Hart & Eric Meyers
1996-1997: “Silk and Steel” (duo) w/ singer/songwriter, Cheryl Watson
1996-2005: “The Zambonis” w/ Rob Peck, Brady Green, Rob Piazza, Sonny Clyatt
and Derek Hess
1996-2011: “The Seiners” (duo) w/ Will Besley (& sometimes w/ Jaime Harris & Marco Warren
2003-2004: “The Wharfratz” w/ Eddie Pickett & Brady Green
2003-2015: “Blue Sage Shoes” w/ Deanna and Chris Koebnick
2005-2010: “Magnolia Possums” w/ Rob Peck & Brady Green
2012-2020: the duo w/ Mark Richey
2015-2019: “Free Range Chickens” w/ Brady Green, Mark Richey, George Reeves, Phil Swindell, Tom Burns, Derek Hess, Woody Pernell, Tom Santoni, T’ai Welch, Bill Mullen (& anyone else I might have left out)
2019-2020: “The CoOp” w/ Rick Kuncicky, Sonny Clyatt & Tom Santoni
Now and Beyond
Since the pandemic began in March 2020, I have been on a long self imposed hiatus from performing. I have continued to play, write and record at home, and am now ready to get back to performing. Mark Richey and I did a set for the Sing Out Loud series in September, 2022, and we will be performing at the 2023 Gamble Rogers Folk Festival in April at the county fairgrounds.
Into the future, I plan to find some new gigs and continue trying to entertain people with a blend of popular music, deep cuts, and original tunes, hoping they will join me for a little while in a brief oasis of enjoyment in the otherwise challenging landscape of our modern daily life. See you all soon, I hope!
