About
I'm a writer, musician, and luthier living in northwest Arkansas. I received an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Arkansas in 1985 and have recently had poetry and plays published in The Cave Region Review, The Healing Muse, and riprap journal, where one of my poems was nominated for inclusion in the Pushcart Anthology.
I've been playing banjo since 1973. After listening to "Duelling Banjos" on the radio, I convinced my folks to buy me a $70 Harmony banjo, and I taught myself. I was a disciple of Earl Scruggs' tommy-gun style and later the linear clawhammer style of Fred Cockerham and Tommy Jarrell. I learned guitar on an old Silvertone in high school by listening to the songs of John Prine.
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Because good instruments are expensive, I taught myself to make them, starting with openback banjos. During my time living in southern California, I lived near a gourd farm and made dozens of banjos using the gourd as a body, a few of which would up in the hands of fine players like Mike Neverisky, Mike Long, and Dan Gellert.
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My work and writing are informed by the scent of maple being hand-sanded with 200 grit paper, the way last light dapples the sassafras leaves as they crimson in the October dusk, and the loping note of straight pipes on an ironhead Sportster motor. I believe “Foggy Mountain Breakdown,” the crack of a junebug off my Ray-Bans at 70 mph, and the final couplet of a sonnet are all the same thing.
