INSPIRATIONS

My biggest inspiration in life and in playing the guitar was my father. Dougie was the nicest guy that ever walked the face of the earth and was loved by all who knew him. He was a wonderful father and a great teacher. His tireless encouragement and proud confidence in me was truly inspirational. He was always showing me something new on the guitar.

I learned all about thumb picking by listening to his repertoire of Chet Atkins and Merle Travis instrumentals that he practiced religiously day after day when I was a kid. And he played in countless country bands were I learned an amazing amount of the songs that I still play today. My mother played bass guitar and sang harmony. Many times we'd entertain at private parties as a family band. And for quite a time I played with my two sisters Linda and Debbie and occasionally we still get together on a Thursday night to sing a few tunes.

VIDEO CLIPS...
1 ) End of Evening.wmv	- 1.9 megs
2 ) New River Train.wmv	- 2.8 megs
3 ) Soldiers Joy.wmv	- 2.5 megs
4 ) Spoons.wmv	- 3.3 megs
5 ) Time to Eat.wmv	- 200 kb
6 ) Uncle Elfonse.wmv	- 2.4 megs
7 ) Live in Saulnierville.wmv	- 13.6 megs

When I actually was old enough to get out and listen to live bands, (and maybe I wasn't), I was really enamored by The Good Brothers. They were just starting to build their reputation for their special brand of bluegrass and I loved it. They lit a fire in me that inspired me to years of studying bluegrass guitar and learning how to play traditional bluegrass.

Guitarist Terry Clements, whom I'd met in the early seventies when he first came up from the states to play guitar for Gordon Lightfoot, taught me a lot about the technical aspects of what to play and what not to play, tuning and timing. Things that are very important for a young guitar player to understand. He was the one who encouraged me to write my own songs and was always eager to put my ideas on tape. Being able to write a song is extremely gratifying and very difficult. I listen to an awful lot of different guitar players ranging from traditional jazz, rock, heavy metal, bluegrass, and blues, whatever. I like anything that's played well but I love guitar players who play with passion.

Check out the video bites in this section of the web site and you'll see the type of musical interaction that really inspires me most.

I suppose the greatest inspiration I receive comes from life - and here's the latest addition, my granddaughter Saige playing guitar with her Poppa:

It's been a great ride and I can only hope the best is yet to come.