Biography
McCook, Neb. in the rolling hills of Northwestern Kansas.
This is prime pheasant hunting country due to the abundance of corn along the creek bottoms coupled with the wheat
stubble fields on the high plains and the many draws and blind canyons providing plentiful cover and habitat for the
birds.
My first musical influence was when, as a toddler, my father who would drag out his fiddle (after a chorus of
pleading and coaxing by all the kids) (I had an older brother and two older sisters) and play some of the fine old
favorites such as "Over The Waves", "Red River Valley", "Red Wing" , "Turkey In The Straw" etc. My mother was
also a big musical influence because she taught us kids how to sing all the old folk songs. My mother also played
music for us on our old pedal pump organ. Oh, and my mother also played the Mandolyn.
Then on Saturday nights the whole family would sit around the old philco radio and listen to whatever country music
it would pull in from the Grand Ol' Opry out of Nashville and the "WLS Barn Dance" from Chicago. By the time I
was nine yrs. old we could even pick up some live country music shows in the early morning hours like Lulla Belle &
Scotty out of WIBW in Topeka, Kans.
I started learning to play the Harmonica at the age of 15 when my older brother came home on furlough from the
army and taught me my first harmonica licks which he had just learned from a buddy. About this time I also found a
late night country music hit parade hosted by Johnny Hicks on KRLD Dallas, Texas and after listening to the likes of
Ernest Tubbs, Eddie Arnold, Hank Williams, Lefty Frizell and George Morgan I became an avid country music fan
and started singing and strumming the guitar to imitate my idols. I also started playing melodies on the mandolin and
tenor banjo by ear about this time. I might have picked up the fiddle at this time as well but my Dad didn't offer to
teach me or encourage me in any way in this direction. I guess he figured the fiddle was his domain.
After graduating from High School I joined the USAF and it was during my four-year stint in the Air Force that I met
other country musicians, started playing in a little pick-up band at the NCO Club and at local social gatherings. I also
started writing a few song poems at this time but they were mostly just little novelty things like Jimmy Dickens or
Homer and Jethro might do.
( to be continued )
