It's not exactly pop. Maybe Alternative or Indie
Folk Rock. It's a sort of bluesy, jazzy, pop, rock, folk style - with a desperate edge.
I write about things that happen in my life. The things I fear, the ones I love, the places I've seen and the darkest roads I've been down. In general, my songs all have a common thread. A mix of hope and despair is as close as I can get. It's easier to say what it is not than what it is. It's not happy, but hopeful, it's not sad, but introspective, it's not angry, just misunderstood.
I actually am heavily influenced by jazz - Latin and Afro- Cuban jazz. Tito Puente, Ruben Gonzalez and Stan Getz are among my favorites.
And I LOVE the old Mississippi Blues like Muddy Waters. Also the '30's and '40's swing vocalists like Ella F., Louis A.,Cab C., and Edith Piaf are favorites of mine. I grew up listening to Stan Getz, Miles Davis, Carly Simon, Buffy Saint Marie (anyone remember her?!), Ricky Lee Jones, The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Queen, Fleetwood Mac, Rush to name a few. It was about the mid '80's when I began listening to my own choices.
Among the first records I had and LOVED were, Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Smiths, The Pogues, Joy Division, David Bowie, Talking Heads, New Order, Violent Femmes, Roxy Music, Devo, Elvis Costello, Adam and the Ants, The Clash, Kate Bush, Patty Smith, Tom Waits, Sex Pistols.... this list would go on and on, but mostly the music that I rocked out to and I mostly identified with was "punk".
I was
really into music back then. I started writing songs in about 1987 and continue to date - with brief episodes of weary discontent with the whole business of writing songs. My early days were the biggest influences for me. Once in the Atlanta music scene and into the '90's I started to listen to some really AMAZING music by artists such as PJ Harvey, Nirvana, Martin Medeski and Wood, Radiohead, Morphine, Jeff Buckley, Beck, but mostly I was influenced by my music cohorts that I was sharing stages with, my band mates and other musicians I hung around with.
As we moved into the new millennium, my musical choices became narrowly specified. I found myself getting into artists who have something deep and meaningful to say that reaches the center of my soul or voices that hit a certain string and give me a reason to live. Music legends like Leonard Cohen, Marianne Faithful, Patty Smith, Tom Waits, Billy Holiday and Nina Simone or newer musical artists like Vienna Tang, Feist, The Eels, The White Stripes, Beck and PJ Harvey all are on my iPod.
So what kind of music do I play? I still don't know. I hope it's the meaningful kind.
Take a listen and see for yourself.
