I’m a teacher, musician, historian, martial artist and grandfather. I have a master’s degree in history from American Military University, where my research focused on nineteenth-century American communalist groups. I have been married to the same woman for over 38 years and I have five children and 13 grandchildren. 

Although I have played guitar for over 45 years, banjo is new to me. I originally wanted to play banjo, but I never got around to it. I bought a nice 5-string a few years ago, but after four decades of having bass notes on the top, I just couldn’t get the hang of having a high string on top. I have even composed music in open G tuning in the guitar, but there is a low D on top, not that high half-string. 

I bought a 6-string banjitar to accompany a singer-songwriter friend and it just worked for me. My finger style guitar chops transferred over and, with some adjustments, The instrument played more easily than my guitars. I was hooked. I found out about classic banjo music and it really appealed to me. I’m hoping to be able to learn and interpret some of the classic music onto the banjitar.