I am currently at work on a solo studio project called Darkling. For updates, click here.

I’ve been writing songs and playing music for about as long as I can remember. Maybe it all started when, as a kid, I would help my dad, a mostly self-taught singer and drummer, carry his equipment into bars and clubs and wedding halls and set up for his gigs. Or maybe it was when I’d watch my grandmother, who was totally unschooled, sit down at the piano in the family room and belt out old-timey songs with her raspy voice and stiff fingers. For the most part, I'm also a self-taught musician, though, during high school and college, I studied composition informally with Greenwich Symphony Orchestra conductor and Manhattan School of Music professor David Gilbert and later with Edward Green, composer and professor at Manhattan School. I also took some voice, bass, piano, and guitar lessons in my early years, and some time later, I studied voice and performance with Joy Askew. 

Growing up, I often sat in with my dad’s band, which gave me many opportunities to learn ‘on the fly’ from some fabulous jazz and blues players. Later, I played bass guitar and sang in rock bands with my brother, a drummer and singer. Sometimes Dad would sit in with us, too, making it a true family affair. As time went on, my love for songwriting really started to take hold, and eventually, singer/songwriter became my main role in any project I was involved in.

In the mid to late 90s, I recorded a few self-produced albums and played many gigs in the New York metro area, appearing at bookstores, cafes, festivals, and clubs. In 1999, I formed and fronted the folk-rock band Seedensoul, playing guitar, flute, percussion, and dulcimer. We recorded a collection of songs, played a few great gigs, and then disbanded. In the months and then years that followed, I became something of a musical hermit, playing live only occasionally, including some very inspiring performances with world-renowned Turkish folk musician Latif Bolat. But I wrote pretty steadily during that time, setting down ideas and making demos for what would become my 2009 release, Heart Broken Open. Following this, I began work on the Darkling project, which I then proceeded to shelf, focusing instead on Oakes & Smith, a folk duo with my wife Kate. But with the pandemic of 2020 came a renewed interest in the shelved Darkling project and the desire to finish it. So Darkling is now officially back in production.

Recordings are available for purchase here my Bandcamp store. 

And you can find me on social media, here.