The front cover pic is actually of my grandmother and her family; she's a young, very young little girl. When composing and collaborating tunes for this CD, I realized my roots do run deep, mighty deep. I know several families were like mine; musically inclined, and was asked often to play for pie suppers, high school auditorium events - mine was similar. Except....my uncle won the family mandolin in a dice game, one-hand-throw-against the wall, winner takes mando to next duty station. He won, the Blue Comet mandolin was forever his. So, within this project is several lifetimes' of influence in the making. From both sides of my beginnings, there's dishes-and-desserts-of-twang I grew up listening to and being inspired by.

Deep Roots is an acoustic string ensemble of instrumentals, featuring fiddle, mandolin, banjo, guitar, acoustic bass, viola, cello, lap steel, reso-slide guitar and piano. CD includes 17 songs.

A journal of events in life set to music. That's what my wife agreed this was. We encountered and endured a series (5 total) of possibly-life-altering-if-not-changing/limiting events within about 5 months. It's makes a man take a hard look at many things he normally takes for granted. Hospitals, doctors, follow-up visits, looking at waiting rooms of people with a far dimmer outlook of hope than you have, God used them all to speak to us, change our lives and called us to seek Him in a way we never had before. It's our diary of life during this challenging time - just set to music not written in a paper journal form.

15 vocals and 1 instrumental. Instrumentation: Fiddle, Banjo, Mandolin, Guitars(Elec/Acoustic), Reso-Slide guitar, Acoustic and Electric Bass, Piano, Keyboard, Percussion

As a composer, which I have to admit is probably my loudest and most-nagging-at-me-calling I have - behind being an Ambassador of the Gospel; which we're all called to do, writing songs is a divinely-nurturing blessings God has given to me. Over the years, many songs wind up in many places you don't think they will. I have a page on my site that highlights a few of those. This CD, (along with Deep Roots), is a snapshot of those tunes and their journey from-Tayra-and-Nari's-bedroom-coverted-studio to ringtones, to documentaries, to episodes on broadcast and cable shows; it's fun to see where they may wind up. This is a 17-song instrumental album featuring a variety of sub-styles including: bluegrass, folk, country, Americana, blues-fusion and gypsy-jazz swing. Instruments featured: Fiddle, Banjo, Mandolin, Acoustic/Electric Guitars, Acoustic and Elec Bass, Reso-slide guitar, Piano, and light percussion.

Eventually everybody, good-bad-or-indifferent, faces, celebrates or moves on from, where they originated. In my case, it was a celebration - more of an admiration and thankfulness. File it under the sorta "didn't know what I didn't know" at the time category. Growing up on a farm surrounded by my mother's love and encouragement, I found music, a family staple - on both sides - to be a real treat, a lifeline... I would later come to realize. Many vignettes on this album cover are actual pictures from events that took place around my home while I was growing up. Some are of happy times, some of sad times - all are of real times. When you travel with music or any other profession that requires you to be on the road, away from home, it's often in the stillness of the night, dealing with the lonesomeness of the road, insomnia-battles in a uncomfortable-motel-bed, that you often will think back, almost can hear or will reminiscence upon those memories of days gone - all that will surface. This is a musical project that pays homage to the folks in my life during that time. 15 - vocal songs and 1 instrumental. The Mandolin, Fiddle, Banjo, Guitar, Lap-Steel, Dobro, Upright/Electric Bass and Dobro are the stringed instruments highlighted herein.

Akin to Deep Roots and Rosin, Picks and Strings, Bloomin' Strings is a 14-song instrumental album of waltzes, hoedowns, bluegrass-romps, lilting lullabies and homemade country tunes. Many of the limbs on my family tree are no longer growing, they have passed from this life. In doing this project I was able to hear again, those ole waltzes, hoedowns and living-room-string romps, as little brother Jerry was on the upright piano or guitar, while dad, grandpa, grandma and my mom would sing and pick like there was no tomorrow. I wrote a line in a song one time that goes, "On Friday night our front room became Carnegie Hall".....this is a snapshot, musically speaking, into a piece of the world I grew up in. Instruments featured are: Fiddle, Mandolin, Banjo, Doghouse and Elec-Bass, Lap Steel, Classical Guitar, Reso-slide guitar, Pennywhistle and sundry-percussion items.

In my musical journey so far, I've had the blessed opportunity to be in some really neat places at just the right time. This CD project is a result of one of those. At the foot of Pikes Peak lies a darling-one-of-a-kind-plot of land, Rock Ledge Ranch. Though various stories circulate, historians seem to agree, this area was the beginnings of Colorado Springs, CO. In my musical ramblings, I was fortunate enough to play music there - banjo, fiddle, mandolin and such - for many of their events; the highlight of the year being the Holly Berry Folk Art Festival. Rich and Kathy Read were so supportive of what I did there. Over the course of time, I was able to gather up some local history from the Docent-Tours and events I played for there. One result of that was this CD. 8 compositions are from walking the grounds; truly listening as the Master Musician placed various melodies in my heart and mind. 4 compositions are from the era the Ranch was in the process of being settled and formed; ala late 1800s to 1920s. Walter Galloway and the The Chambers Family, both contributed greatly to the beginnings and founding of this truly unique treasure of a place. Rich, Kathy, Gene, Andy, Ron, Carol, Julie, Dancin-John and a sundry group of volunteers have kept that place humming right along. The Reads spearheaded over two-plus decades and renovation of the Ranch from hosting the Folk Art Festival there. All 12 songs are instrumental with banjo, fiddle, mandolin, acoustic guitar and dobro seasoned through-out.

What a fun album this was to make. My wife and I were on the road for a few years in our older RV. So we decided to camp in various places, see this wonderful tapestry called America, and listen to the silence; see what God might say to us if we got quiet and still enough to listen. Each one of these tunes were written and recorded around a campfire, in a grocery store parking lot or in a remote area where no cell phone dare trod, ha ! If you listen close there's a train whistle on a track in MN, rain on the roof of the RV in MO and a howling wind in OK...... This CD was completed in just over a year. So we decided it should be titled: 12 months, 13 states, 14 songs, (thank you honey, always thinking, she is!). Fiddle, Mandolin, Banjo, Guitar, Acoustic Bass are the featured instruments.

The Crib Jam CD along with Red Dirt Serenade are probably the two most down-home tributes I have done that features the type and styles of music I grew up on. Not unlike many others of those times, banjo, fiddle, mandolin, guitars, basses - upright and electric - along with dobro, ukulele, accordion and harmonicas ...ALL of these instruments were a part of our family jams in the living rooms, backyards, pie suppers at the local schools or wherever the family was asked to come and perform music. This is the only CD where I was able to talk my wife into singing a song with me on any recording. She did a great job and often people want her to sing it live when we are somewhere. At this time, she's a studio vocalist only, ha! ...but it was a treat for me to have her on this track. She's truly a behind-the-scenes sorta gal and is very happy in that role of supporter and helper. But just this once she was willing to sing with me on "Best of Friends". Maybe the title and story of the song was/is the reason why. Lyrics of that song are true as it pertains to our courtship, romance and coming together - then as in now. As the old country song says, "love is still alive and at our breakfast table". I thank our Heavenly Father for that every day.

11 vocals and 2 instrumentals highlight this CD.

A collection of acoustic country, bluegrass and hybrid-styles of roots-and-strings, this CD has some earlier recordings on it that aren't found anywhere else. 10 vocals and 2 instrumentals highlight the tapestry of this CD. Included are Fiddle, Mandolin, Banjo, Guitars, Bass, Elec and Doghouse and Dobro. As a peculiar-side-note...on the last song, "Fiddle Me Timbers" the engineers were at the end of the spool of tape - not sure we could get it recorded before running out of tape... (yes, they still used tape in the earlier part of the 2000s). Well, we are right up to the end of the tune, and bam....we finish the tune, it is fading out and then our headphones are 100% quiet. They tell us the fade out is complete BUT we have ZERO amount of tape left to use. To our knowledge this is the only recording available of Fiddle Me Timbers and If Dreamin' Could Make it So anywhere. And now you know....the rest of the story :)

You'll read among the bio-info of these CDs some "right-place-right-time" sorta monikers. My uncle would say, "fingerprints of the Lord, all over it!". I cannot disagree. On a cold Rocky Mtn morning, I'm out for a walk, before sunrise and I pull in a station on my wireless headset. It's a new show I haven't caught before called, Morning in America, featuring Dr Bill Bennett. I listen for a while and really enjoy his solid moral, foundational tenets of traditional America. His on-air producer (Seth, I so came to so appreciate him), were talking. They didn't have a theme song for their show and they didn't wanna just cut-paste a country song to open the show or take them out of or into segments of their broadcast. Later that same morning they are having a discussion about the difference between an old song, Ballad of New Orleans and an even older fiddle song, 8th of January. Discussion goes back and forth about songs are same, different,etc.... I decide to call in and never thought I'd get through (but after all, it is 6am/MT) and I DO get through. Seth is a real nice fella and I explain that they are really-and-truly two different songs with many parts of their melodies extremely similar. I tell him, "I have my fiddle right here if you'd like to hear one then the other?" He says, "heck, yaw". So I get the old family fiddle, 130 years old and tear into each one for about 20 seconds each. They are all applauding having a good time for fellas in the morning, before dawn, ha! When that was all done I told them I'd heard they didn't have a theme song and I had an idea I'd like to finish up (over the weekend) and send to them for consideration. Seth was all over it (as my granddaughter says)....gave me a way to send it and then I had to go to work, ha! ....I only had a couple measures of a melody and the name of Dr Bennett's show, "Morning in America". So I started working on Friday and by Sunday night/11pm-MT, I sent them a finalized composition of "Morning in America". So I'm listening Monday morning, getting ready for same-early-hour walking with my wife, and low-and-behold, my song is playing on Bill Bennett's, Morning in America Radio Show !! That was the start of a wonderful relationship with them, Dr Bennett, Seth and Jeff (engineer). Over the next few years they requested or I sent them several other compositions and they'd feature them on the show; a wonderful platform for a mountain-country-boy to be showcased. At the end of the CD, last track is an extended interview that Dr Bennett conducts with me. I could never say thank you enough to these fellas, though big time, found time to listen to a less-known-fella like me and placed my music in areas of the world my wife and I had only dreamed could be. Blessings to all those folks that had a hand in it !!

A 12-song instrumental album that highlights a different style of music than on other CDs. Granted, mandolin, fiddle, guitars, basses are all used but it a lilting, easy, softer-tone, sort of way. This CD seems to resonate more with several disciplines within the medical, rehabilitation or physical therapy fields of study. Teachers, counselors and therapists say this CD helps to set a mood of calmness that enhances their missions and methods of treatment. We couldn't have said it better!

I have been blessed many times over, to come a play music, fiddle, mandolin, banjo and/or guitar, for folks in the finals stages of life this side of heaven. I can tell you it's a true "where-the-rubber-meets-the-road" sort of experience and enlightenment experience. When we learned many of these songs, as kids - or as adult-kids, (aren't we all a little of both, still?), there was an anointing, a special grace of blessing on many of these traditional hymns and well, songs-of-comfort. Those songs still bring us a level of healing, nurturing, peace, calmness, belonging, remembering and a sense of comfort. Obviously, not able to include all of them here, I have chosen several that always seems to comfort folks in their hours of need; or final hours period. Several of the original songs were born out of these sorts of experiences; me fiddlin', God nurturing them through the music they remember and me getting an enlightenment that would stay with me forever. As folks would say thank you for coming, or for playing music, I often felt like (and did) say thank you to them. As God taught me something about every one of those experiences and I left the room, the home, the hospital, the hospice facility, a richer, more-fulfilled and more-enlightened fellow traveler. The last song on the CD is from a live performance at my brother and I's high school auditorium. Complete with kids crying, parent chiding kids to "get over here, stop that, come here"....to my deceased-middle-brother's-laugh....easy to hear, comforting to remember that night. I pray you will be blessed as we, I, have been. Songs are: 7 vocals and 7 instrumentals

Over the last few years, when I would hear the Christmas season music, albeit it very good and unique, I always wanted to do many of those songs in a stringed-instrument, acoustic type of format. You know: fiddles, mandolins, banjos, dobros, dog-house bass and acoustic guitars. Well, this is a vision-dream-come-true-sorta result. 15 instrumentals and 2 vocal songs, all recorded in the mountains of Colorado, using those very acoustic and string instruments. "Now We Got it All" is a capture from 1988. It's the first Christmas I spent with my wife. Recorded earlier that year and given to her as a gift (yes, I know, a bit sappy or folksy) but just the same, it's how I felt. Through all of life's ups and downs, God had sustained us and we came together and how we had it all. As the final chorus explains, the heavenly gifts were gold in the sunrise and silver from the moon. "Old Fashioned Country Christmas" is the last song on the CD and is a prayer and hope I suppose all parents and grandparents hope for. We get to experience this more often than not. Except those grandkids are getting older and have lots of places to go that time of year. It's a mile-marker of a blessed life for me and my wife to look back on and celebrate to this day.

A 12 song album release never before available to the public. This album was a International release exclusively sent to radio stations with no purchase opportunity. The dozen compositions feature the writing of Jody Adams, Branum/Woodwork, J Liao, DHathy, ForestD, Delahunt/Malone, LAnderson and PGottsche. Instruments with the 12 vocal songs are: Fiddle, Mandolin, Banjo, Guitars (Elec-Acoustic), Basses (Electric/Acoustic), Drums and Pianos.