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Some projects come together quickly and easily, others evolve slowly over time. Somewhere around 10 years ago, I discovered the quatrains of the 13th century Persian poet Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī. Quatrains are four line poems. There was something about Rumi’s work in this terse, compact format that deeply appealed to me. My initial exposure to these poems was through a book of versions of Rumi by Coleman Barks & John Moyne called “Open Secret”. I ended up composing a piece […]

t’s International Piano Day – the 88th day of the year! The piano was my first instrument. In the late 1950’s, my Dad purchased a Conover upright piano. I am fortunate enough to still have possession of this piano that was in my family since before I was born. When I was in 5th grade, my sister Linda and I both started taking piano lessons from Mrs. Smith (I wish to God I could remember her first name!). She was […]

I’m really old-school. When it comes to music listening, I do not do Pandora or streaming music channels. The way that many people listen to music nowadays is very song focused. I still think in terms of albums and I look at an album as a cohesive statement from an artist at a certain point in history. To me, an album is like a film or a novel, all the individual songs inform the whole story or image that the […]

Last Summer my band Tumble was taking a little hiatus. During this time, I felt a real hankering to find a new music project to help fill in the void. I had been listening quite a bit to Sacramento guitarist Ross Hammond’s new album “Flow State” and really enjoying it! I remembered that Ross did quite a number of long distance collaborative albums with other artists during the initial COVID shelter in place. On a whim…I had the idea of […]

I am super happy to announce that I am releasing a new 3 song EP next week called Midsummer Dialogues. It is a collaboration with guitarist Ross Hammond. 2 voices – guitar & mbira. I can’t wait to share it with you all! Release date will be 11/11/22. More info coming soon!

Lately, my mind and heart have been set spinning by the unexpected and sudden death of my friend Mikail Graham. Of course, it’s impossible to sum up his life or my friendship with him in this little blog post. To say that he was a real giant in our local community would be such be an understatement. His life touched SO many, and my life was enriched by knowing him!! I will try to share a few bits here, specifically […]

 My old friend Scott Wiser just put out a really cool new album with his band Mount Desert. Mount Desert is a collaboration between Scott and drummer Jordan Norton. “Fear the Heart” is their second album. The record is a wild blend of thunderous heavy rock with other-worldly ambience. Scott’s production on this record is stellar! Scott asked my daughter Mei Lin and I to lay down some fiddle and mbira tracks to contribute to the world music influenced tune […]

From my vantage point, Tumble has gone through three distinct periods: the trio, the quartet with Bill Douglass, and the current quartet with bass player Rob Holland. Each transition has resulted in distinct changes in the evolution of the sound of the band and its musical direction.  We began playing with Rob Holland in early 2019. Rob has brought so many special new elements and influences to the group. Rob plays a variety of basses with Tumble including acoustic upright […]

How might I “sum up” the last 2 1/2 years during which I co-created a bluegrass band with my daughter? From starting out as a duo, doing early gigs with some of our musical friends Walter Webb & Randy McKean, connecting with our bassist Karl Chelette and becoming a trio, co-writing songs with wife/mother Juli Marks, and recording our album during the early days of COVID shelter in place. For me, it has been a time of magic for sure! […]

My daughter Mei Lin and I started playing bluegrass/old-timey fiddle tunes together around the time that she first played fiddle at 7 years of age. Although she started off learning the Suzuki method, her teacher thankfully also taught her old-time fiddle tunes from the very start. Over time, her passion for bluegrass music overtook her interest in classical music. Once she started learning “Oh Susanna”, “Cripple Creek” etc… I naturally pulled out the old guitar and started playing these tunes […]