I was born and raised in the small farming and ranching town of Minot, North Dakota. My dad was the pastor of a small country church. My music life started in church singing hymns and performing with my siblings. I have always been drawn to guitar in a way that I can’t explain. I loved country and bluegrass music as a kid and wanted a guitar so bad. Around age 8 I started working as the janitor for my dad’s church for $10 a week. With my first paycheck I went down to the local music store and did a rent to own on an acoustic guitar. I started learning basic chords and strumming, but the church and my family fell on hard times and I had to return my guitar. Fast forward to age 15, we had moved to a small-town west of Seattle. I met an old country guitar player, Johnny Fulmer and he said if I got a guitar he would teach me whenever he was in town. I begged my dad to help me out and I bought a Morris (Martin clone), which I still own to this day. I learned my basic chords and joined a country gospel group called High Calling. For the next two years we traveled around Washington, Oregon, and Idaho playing at churches, youth camps, pretty much wherever we could. Then life happened and we all went our separate way. Through the years during dark times I was always drawn to my guitar that I drug all over the world with me. In 2013, after two deployments to the middle east (Iraq, Afghanistan) I was medically retired from the army. In 8 months I went from a combat zone, to a civilian again and was completely lost and in the darkest hole I had ever found myself in. As always, I turned to my guitar and music to sooth my battered soul. I was really into heavy metal/rock, so I bought an electric guitar and messed around with some online lessons, but it just wasn’t the same. In 2016 I discovered Tony Polecastro through YouTube and rediscovered my love for acoustic guitar and the music of my roots. I love the TAC community and am looking forward to the future for the first time in a long time.

I have 1 Classical – Yamaha, 3 Acoustics – PRS, Morris, Epiphone, and 2 Electric – Epiphones.