Hi, here is my bio page where you can find out more about me than you ever wanted to know, and see some pictures. I started playing guitar when I was 14 in junior high school, and have not stopped since. My musical tastes range from rock to blues, country, and acoustic music, with a heavy dose of "classical-progressive rock" thrown in. Yet classic rock would be my vice-of-choice overall, I love to arrange songs to make them our own. We have a really wide selection of styles being done, and doing the unplugged thing is alot of fun.

Here's the latest picture of me....this is a historic event, you'll notice that for the first time in 30 years I've gotten rid of my 70's hair style, so to compensate....

Foggie Notion was the last bar-dance band I was in before re-uniting with Mark and Pat for Acoustic Union. Foggie got together about a year ago in a roundabout way really. I had been in the band Last Call for about 1 ½ years and the bass player, Jeff Lee introduced me first to Geno when Last Call was breaking up, then introduced me to Joel with the prospect of getting a new band together. We got together a few times, but things didn't quite work out and Jeff left to join another band, which left an opening for some low end. I then recruited my long-time partner in crime Captain Pat Williams on bass to join us and we started playing gigs. We did OK, and for a working band, we played most every weekend, but there was trouble brewing long before the split. Mostly there was a musical divide that was never really bridged ( If I ever play We re Not Gonna Take It and Rock and Roll All Night again it will be too soon LOL!). A keyboard player named Adam joined to fill out the sound, and did, but again, musically, there were still problems. I have to admit, here and now, that we did a killer version of Alan Parsons Eye in the Sky as done on his latest live CD, with opening fanfare and all! It was really well done, and there are not many bar bands that will attempt the Parsons Project. I also found some members difficult to deal with, maybe because they were SOOO good (we were told how good they were constantly). Anyway, Foggie is gone, and Acoustic Union is up and running. Finally, an arrangement with really good friends, who are really good musically, and I am really having fun again!!

I got my 1971 Firebird for my birthday, July 3rd...It took me 30 years to get it, and now I'm already changing it, it will be transformed into a Formula 350 by the end of the summer, and new pics will be posted when it's done.

There are three guys that taught me mostly everything I know on guitar. They are Jim Zabel; mostly electric rock with some great acoustic jamming, Mark Fyvie; acoustic finger picking and harmony, and Mark Bacome; country and swing licks and styles, and how to "listen" to what's being played around you, proving that sometimes "less is more" when it comes to arrangements and dynamics. Thank you guys!

Jim Zabel is the first fellow who really taught me how to play guitar with various rock styles, so he is either the main man to give credit to, or place blame upon! He is a great musician and has just opened his own studio, his website address is linked on our links page, check out some of his stuff if you want to surf on over.

I started doing acoustic music while in the Navy with Mark Fyvie, a very good friend, (my first son's godfather infact), in Northern California. We did a lot of James Taylor, CSN&Y, Loggins & Messina type music. Mark and I went to a couple of studios and recorded some neat stuff, that was also a first (but far from last) for me. The "5" will always remain one of the best singers I've ever known.

Then I met an absolutely great guitar player named Mark Bacome, he was so good that Mark Fyvie and I made him play bass for us, (which he also loved) and we then stated a rock band called Catch 22 with a 17 year old female drummer named Lisa. Great fun time with that setup. After about a year, Mark Fyvie decided to move back to upstate New York, and Mark Bacome left to tour first with the band Diamond's Edge, then decided to join the U.S. Navy. I did mostly recording in my little home studio at this point for awhile and jamming with various different people.

Then I met Patrick Williams... and the real trouble began LOL!! Patrick and I first met in California back in 1986 and started a band call Avatar, a power trio with the help of Warren "The Man of Plastic" Savage on drums. Avatar was a short-lived band, but was the stepping stone to future band incarnations and even our fame and fortune, so to speak.

I moved to Guam in 1988 to work at Glimpses>McCann-Erickson advertising, and before I knew it Mark Bacome called and said he was being stationed there, then Pat moved to Guam and the three of us would back up a local female singer Maria Yatar. This was a great time for our chops to get honed, we played all the time, every weekend, and we refer to this as our "Hamburg" period, but we were looking for abit more musical development so we started the band Crossroads with drummer Scott Carr ("We play this song slow, but very loud"). Crossroads lasted a little while, and we started meeting other people on island.

At this point we hooked up with Paul Laraque (Deputy Dawg), who is one of the best drummers I have ever know, got a lead singer named Mike Leone, and keyboardist Rea Rotondi and started the band Riptide. It was with this line-up that Pat and I wrote and recorded a #1 hit song on Guam called "Loadshedding Blues", and Riptide went on to win 2nd place in the island-wide Battle of the Bands, and became one of Guam's premiere party-bar bands. Riptide lasted with this line-up for about 2 years and then we got a new lead vocalist named Kim Aiken and Mike Radi on keys, and we remained in our premiere spot on island for about another 2 years before everybody ended up leaving.

And that brings things round full circle to Washington state and the emergence of Acoustic Union. One thing about Acoustic Union is that you'll hear a lot of your favorites, a great blend of different music styles, a few that will jar the old memory tapes, a few that will not, hopefully some will make you laugh and, last but most important, you will have fun and be entertained.

Steve