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I was born and raised on the San Francisco peninsula, and started playing music (trumpet and French horn) at an early age. In high school, a friend who was taking banjo lessons from the Grateful Dead's Jerry Garcia turned me on to bluegrass music. I bought a guitar, discovered Doc Watson, Clarence White, and Flatt & Scruggs, and was hooked. During my undergraduate days at the University of California I played an awful lot of music and earned a degree in physics. Memories of the Berkeley folk music scene are still my favorite. After many years as a bluegrass guitarist and singer, I switched to the fiddle because it was louder and easier to carry. Over the years I have played a variety of styles, from old-timey and bluegrass to Texas-style and swing, earned a master's degree in folklore from UCLA, taught music, repaired violins, and written scholarly articles about music. I have had the distinct honor to work with, and write about, such great fiddlers as Benny Thomasson, Hugh Farr, and Tiny Moore. I was introduced to contra dancing while living in Santa Barbara and have thoroughly enjoyed immersing myself both in the music and the dance. I regularly play dances with Sliding Scale, folk-rock with Granite Tapestry, and was a member of the infamous (and now defunct) old-timey band The Gap Tooth Mountain Ramblers. |
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