Category: Actor/Musician

02
Jun
2026
13:11

Shifting Perspective

When I was a young musician, I used to sit around playing music for hours just for the pure pleasure of it. I wasn’t necessarily learning songs for bands or rehearsing for anything in particular. I just loved learning and playing. Now, somewhere over 40 years into my career, I’m almost always preparing, learning, and rehearsing for various bands and upcoming gigs. However I have recently made sure to keep that perspective and remember that I love doing this. It’s not work or an obligation. It’s not a chore that is keeping me from something else. It is still something I love and enjoy. This perspective is so important and makes all this “homework” so much infinitely more enjoyable.

15
Mar
2026
22:40

Austin Tribute Band Community Awards 2026

I am well and truly SHOCKED (and I’m not just saying that to be “humble”) to not only again be nominated for “Best Multi-instrumentalist” (which I previously won thanks to all of you who voted) but ALSO “Best Male Vocalist” and “Best Performer” in the ATBC Awards. Tons of immensely talented folks in all the categories. I encourage you to go vote for your favorites and support local music and musicians!

FAB!, the Beatles tribute I’m in is also nominated for “Best New Artist”

Yacht Z, the yacht rock band I’m in is nominated for “Best Cover Band” (as well as Skyrocket who I have the pleasure of subbing with occasionally).

I was also in the “Band On The Run” and “Heat of the Moment – ASIA tribute” one-off special projects.

I’m also in several bands with Chris Nine and Matt Patterson who are both nominated as well!

If you’d like to support me, local music in general, or any other of your favorite Austin musicians who are nominated, you can vote here!

15
Mar
2026
22:30

Vague Ruminations on “Stairway To Heaven”

Firstly I always though and still think it’s a great song. I grew up in a time when people liked it in earnest and it had not yet become the cliche/punchline that it would become. People actually wanted to hear you play it. I just had the most vague traces a of a memory. I think it was in high school at some point and Eric Taylor (I think) recruited me and Richard Bade to be in a one-off band playing for a school talent show (I think). Eric was a great guitar player and I *think* I was just singing it, a rarity. My 6 month tenure on a cruise ship is the only other time I’ve been a dedicated vocalist who wasn’t also playing an instrument (and a one-off sub gig with Tumbling Dice, a great Rolling Stones tribute). Still a strange feeling to me when I do it. I’m sure there must have been at least one or two other folks involved in that band but I can’t remember who. I also have vague recollections of all kinds of technical snafus wreaking havoc with the one-song performance. It’s all so vague, I can’t swear by any of this. Other than I still think it’s a banger.

15
Jan
2026
22:20

2025 Rickenbacker 4003S Review

I’ve been playing bass for 40+ years. A Ric was never particularly on my “wish list” or anything though I knew they were great basses. Over the decades, the more I played and learned about various basses, I started to think a Ric might just be a good fit for me. I finally decided to take the plunge and I am completely sold. I could go on for days about all the things I love. I chose the 4003S because it has a more rounded and comfortable body since it has no binding. The models with binding I find uncomfortable on the right forearm. And also the dot inlays are what McCartney had and we all know I love me some McCartney.

Continue reading…
20
Sep
2025
19:41

Thoughts Of My Uncle Jim

I found myself thinking of my late Uncle Jim today. Strangely, I could not find any previous entry where I wrote about him or his death. This strikes me as very strange. Jim was a fairly big figure in my life in many ways.

My mother had one older brother Mike, and two younger brothers, Brown, and Jim, named after his father, Dr. James Cooper. When I was about 5 years old, my mother and I moved back into the family house with my grandmother Betty (Mimi), and Jim. Jim was about 7 years older than me, so we always had more of an older/younger brother kind of relationship. We were very different in a lot of ways, but also alike. It was a strange dichotomy. We were never super close best friends or anything, but we loved each other. He definitely ended up being a huge influence on me. Whenever he was really into something, I got really into it. I remember he loved science fiction and had a trunk full of old comic books. He loved The Beatles (as did my mom and our whole family) and Billy Joel. I discovered many artists and albums through him and his many friends who would often hang out at our house. I remember a phase when he got really into Irish and Gaelic culture, and so I did too for a hot second. He introduced me to Dungeons & Dragons, first edition! One strangely vivid memory is that he somehow made his own set of Hawkman wings and Helmet for Halloween using two belts, a mannequin head, strips of paper and tape. Another Halloween he made himself up as a zombie. He was an innately talented multi-instrumentalist and singer and taught me my very first guitar chords. I’m sure he must have showed me some things on our piano as well. Jim could play anything he picked up and put his mind to. For years before I had a guitar of my own, I would play his, or an acoustic he had borrowed from Joe Williams. He had this Yamaha 12-string acoustic that almost always only had 6 strings on it like a regular acoustic. Scott Eddy, who became one of my favorite humans, lent us his brand new Roland JX-3P synthesizer with external programming module as well for us to play with for a few days! It was like magic.

I remember he could be infuriating. Stubborn. Irresponsible. Careless. He was also a true artist at heart. Creative, intelligent, and kind. He loved animals. He was a knowledge sponge. I remember when he became intrigued with the occult and thought he had summoned something bad in the added front room of the house with a pentagram he had drawn on the floor. Many of his friends became somewhat my friends by proxy. Our house was often the “hangout.” Sometimes far too late when I was trying to sleep on a school night and there would be jam sessions after the bar had closed. We’d get irritated at each other and argue. He hated when I’d be on the phone with my friend Andy for HOURS before there was call waiting. We would always make up and tell each other we loved each other though. Sometimes Mimi, Jim, and I would all sleep in Mimi’s bed. If she was out of town, he would be next in line to stay in her master bedroom, but if they were BOTH gone (or during the periods when he didn’t live with us), it was MY domain and I loved it. I was pissed when he broke my Shoge, a martial arts weapon my dad had bought me when I went to visit him in New Jersey. Jim claimed he had been throwing it in the yard and the blade had hit a rock or something like that. We loved to set off fireworks in the driveway for the 4th of July. He would torment me by taking those empty cicada shells off of trees after cicadas had molted and chasing me to attach them to my clothing. I hated it. And then there was the time I was sitting in an armchair with my back to the kitchen doorway, he was on the couch and suddenly jumped up and said “Hey, let’s go back to Mimi’s room” and raced back there. Where we then called the police because he swore that behind me he saw “A hairy arm closing the door out to the garage” like maybe someone had come in, saw us there and crept back out.

Jim was somewhat of a magical being. One that with hindsight and age I now see as someone who just wasn’t equipped for this world and the way it worked. He couldn’t seem to keep a job. He took advantage of his mother and spent a lot of her meager money from whatever source it came from (she was pretty much bed-ridden with arthritis for the entirety of my memory of her). “Mooched” off her some would say. I think that he likely always drank too much. He was an artist and a gentle soul in a world that isn’t kind to such people in many ways. I can relate. When I have worked “day jobs,” even the best ones felt like luxurious padded prisons and I felt like a beast straining at my very comfortable chains because my soul was not being fulfilled. It was not what I was meant for.

Jim lived with us on and off over the 13 (I think) years we lived there. We moved when my grandmother sold the house which was deteriorating over the years. My mom and I moved into a duplex and Jim would then live with Mimi in Oregon for a while. Once Mimi moved back into my mom’s place in her last years after I had moved out, he would end up there a lot as well. He would eventually end up in the hospital with pretty much total system failure due to alcoholism, which is where his story ends in 2001. I can’t remember really having any meaningful contact with him in the years after we all moved out of the house. He left eternal and deep impressions on all those that knew him. We had a strange relationship but there’s no denying the lifelong character-shaping effects he had on who I am, far more numerous than can possibly be detailed in an impossibly inadequate account. He taught me my first guitar chords.

15
Feb
2025
23:37

How I Ended Up Playing Saxophone With Jack Hues of Wang Chung

Tis a long and twisty tale. First, some important background.

I have played guitar, keys, and bass for about 42 years. Shut up, I’m old. I played alto saxophone in 6th and 7th grade, I believe. Then I continued to play it on a few songs in bands where I played guitar. I played the solos in “Never Tear Us Apart” by INXS, “On The Dark Side” by John Cafferty and Beaver Brown Band from the “Eddie and the Cruisers” soundtrack, and “One More Night” by Phil Collins, among others. Again, yes I’m aware that I’m ancient.

At some point, I pawned my saxophone and didn’t play for decades. Maybe something like 30 years, I’m not sure. In 2021 I formed the yacht rock band, Yacht Z, and thought “There sure is some tasty saxophone in some of these songs, maybe I should pick it back up.” Apparently the universe agreed as two generous friends (shout out to Kathy Rose Center and Chris Wilson) gifted me a tenor and an alto saxophone over the years.

Also starting in 2021, the amazing band Skyrocket asked me to be a sub on guitar and keys occasionally when they needed one. My good friend Johnny Goudie from that group has a great podcast called “How Did I Get Here?” which I was honored to be a guest on at one point. Jack Hues from Wang Chung was also a guest, and he and Johnny became friends afterward.

So that’s how it came to be that my friend Darin, Skyrocket’s drummer, called me a few weeks ago and asked me if I would play sax on “Dance Hall Days” by Wang Chung because Jack Hues was going to sit in (he currently lives in the Austin area). Now keep in mind, I still feel like a total mediocre amateur on Saxophone having only picked it back up in 2021 and I still get really nervous and in my head about it. So a part of my brain thought “Are you sure you are up for this?” but my mouth was already saying “YEAH SURE!” They also wanted me to play on “Never Tear Us Apart” by INXS so that was an interesting full circle moment.

So I spend the next few weeks working on those songs. I’m not really an improvisor on saxophone, so I tend to just learn whatever parts are in the actual song. I had one rehearsal with the band (minus Jack) on Wednesday before the show, where I was quite in my head at first. It felt real shaky. But by the end of the night I was having fun, and at least by what I was told, everything was sounding good.

Saturday arrives. Show day. I show up to soundcheck my two songs, and Jack is there as well. Talented, nice, wonderful guy. Wang Chung. Come on. Who doesn’t like Wang Chung? What other band is a VERB? You can’t say “I Beatlesed tonight” but you can absolutely say “I Wang Chunged tonight.” Or would it be “I Wanged Chung” tonight? Hmm, I’m pretty sure it’s “Wang Chunged.” They are part of eternal music culture.

We run though the song once. It goes well and Jack and his wife seem happy and complimentary. Then Jack asks me, “Hey I think it would sound good if you played that up an octave.” Part of me panics. Wants to blurt out a disclaimer about how I’m not very good and I’m not sure if I can make that adjustment at the last moment because, again, I’m not very good…” but my mouth smartly just says “YEAH SURE!” once I clarify that he means just the main riff. The solo at the end I already had to alter because I’m not good enough to play up into the octave where that solo actually begins.

Then he says “Oh and in the third verse, I like to do this thing where between my lines you play something so we go back and forth.” Stage 2 brain panic. “I HAVE NOT REHEASED THAT. I CAN’T IMPROVISE. I’M NOT VERY GOOD.” Again, luckily my mouth is smart enough to simply say “YEAH SURE!”

We try it. It actually goes pretty well. Compliments all around. I feel…good about it! Several people give me specific compliments on how they liked the things I chose to play. They were tasty, soulful, and riffs that said something. In that moment, I realize that the limits of my abilities and my lack of confidence worked in my favor. Because they made me keep it simple but soulful. I knew enough to play something that fit without worrying about being “flashy” or trying to throw in “LOOK WHAT I CAN DO” riffs.

The band finished out the first set with my two songs, the last one being “Dance Hall Days” when they brought Jack out. The sold out place went wild. The energy was amazing. The band was amazing. I was far from perfect but I had a blast and played from the heart. Afterward as I walked back to my car, I had to take a moment to just sit down on a rock bench in downtown Austin and process what had just happened and the crazy life journey that led me there. The temperature was dropping and the brisk night air felt almost as good as the immense gratitude I had for it all. Sometimes, you can do more than you think or know. I say this to you all from the heart, because it’s a good motto. Everybody Wang Chung tonight.

05
Nov
2024
17:51

An Eggman No More

Today John Burgess, founder of The Eggmen announced that November 16 at Backstage at El Mercado would be the last ever Eggmen gig after 32 years, so I thought I’d try to collect my thoughts on my journey to being a small part of that legendary legacy.

The Beatles are the deepest part of my musical being. The most foundational part of my musician DNA. My mother was a huge Beatles fan as a teenager and even got to see them in concert. Growing up, we had all her records in the house. Mostly the Capitol American releases. I wouldn’t learn until quite a few years later that those were kind of haphazard, Frankensteined releases and not the true UK releases as intended.

I had always been impressed with the incredible range of their catalog. Comparing their first album to their last is like two completely different bands. They defined and defied genres. They experimented with recording techniques thought to be outrageous and even taboo to the the studio engineers at the time. Techniques that would go on to become industry standards. They invented technologies that became standard tools in the toolbox. It is important that you realize that when I say “they,” that includes George Martin (the true fifth Beatle in my opinion), Geoff Emerick, Mal Evans, and everyone in their camp who helped them create that music.

They have been with me through so much of my life. Comforted me in difficult times and brought me joy in all times. To this day I somehow continue to discover more and more new things through their music. It’s a neverending source of knowledge and inspiration.

I had heard of The Eggmen, this legendary Austin Beatles tribute band, decades before I lived here. Yet somehow I never actually saw them until they just happened to be playing at Central Market when I was there one day in 2018. In 2021, my friend and bandmate in several bands, Matt Patterson, became their drummer. In 2022, he recommended our mutual friend and bandmate, David Houston when the bass slot opened up. Then later that year when they were doing some shows with some local orchestras and needed a keyboard player to play a lot of that stuff, both of them recommended me. Let me tell you, there is not much I have experienced that is as magical as playing Beatles songs while surrounded by a live orchestra playing those songs with you.

For the next year, they would call me in when they needed a keyboard player for those bigger gigs or when they’d be playing a lot of keyboard dependent stuff. I played alongside many former members as well for the 30th anniversary show which was the one time I got to meet and play with JB’s brother, Tommo who used to play keys with the band before he retired his position. In the Autumn of 2023, they asked me to be a full time member. I was elated and gave an enthusiastic “YEAH! YEAH! YEAH!” My first gig with them as a full time member was October 13, 2023. Which turned out to be quite interesting.

I was loading up my car at about 4pm to go load in for the gig when we all got a text than John Burgess had gone to the hospital with some kind of emergency. Quickly assessing our plan of action, the other lads brought up the prospect of me filling in for JB. I said that I absolutely felt up to the task and that, in fact, it felt like I had been training my whole life for this moment. I very quickly went back inside and loaded up lyrics for every song into Band Helper, the app I use for set lists and such. There was no time to rehearse. I drove straight to the gig, set up and quickly assessed our set list for the night, and what I would be doing on each song. Any song with a prominent keyboard part, I would play that, but anything else I would wing it on guitar and hope for the best. I would also sing everything that JB sang which was most of the list. I felt strangely calm about it. I knew these songs in my bones. The chords just found my fingers. The lyrics came out of the mental archive with ease. These songs had been etched into my neural pathways for most of my life.

The gig was amazing. I filled the same role for several other gigs while JB recuperated. When he rejoined the band, he was a little worried about his voice so usually I would still double any vocals, which worked out well as our voices blended well together and a lot of Beatles vocal lines were double-tracked because Lennon hated the sound of his own voice and thought doubling it made it sound better. And now it seems this (not) Long (enough) and Winding Road is coming to “The End.”

My tenure as an Eggman may have been short, but it was filled with life-changing magic. My late friend Val had a “Bucket List” of things she wanted to do in her remaining time here and seeing me perform with The Eggmen was one of them. I was so glad we made that happen. Right up to the end, she would text me about how we should be ending EVERY show with me singing “Hey Jude” because she thought it brought the house down.

And so with today’s announcement that November 16 at Backstage at El Mercado will be the last gig for The Eggmen, the remaining members contemplate our path ahead. Many of us know that we definitely want to continue playing the music of The Beatles in some form, and I’m sure we will. It will be sad to no longer be “The Eggmen” (which we all agree is the BEST name for a Beatles Tribute ever) and to see that legendary legacy set with the sun, but the music is bigger than all of us. People want to hear it, and we want to play it. I personally have some very mixed feelings about it all, and am just trying to take some time to process and contemplate the future. I do know that no words seem sufficient and that I am filled with gratitude and honored that I got to be a part of this amazing group, playing the best music with the best people, even if only for a short time.

I think the best parting words are the words of The Beatles themselves, from the appropriately titled, “The End.”

“And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make.”

I am the Eggman. They are the Eggmen.

Goo goo g’joob.

02
Apr
2024
22:51

The 1st Annual Austin Tribute Band Community Awards

To not bury the lede, today I was voted “Best Multi-Instrumentalist” in the first annual Austin Tribute Band Community awards.

As a member of the Beatles tribute group The Eggmen, we also won Best One-Off Show for our show where we played the entire albums of A Hard Day’s Night and Abbey Road, and we were also voted into the Hall Of Fame.

Amusingly, I was not visible in either photo because in one I was behind someone else, and the other was taken before I joined full-time. I say amusingly because there’s a joke among keyboard players that we are never in photos. We always end up getting cropped out, obscured, or otherwise forgotten. It doesn’t actually bother me but I do find it funny and weird how true it often is!

These awards were started because the hugely popular Austin Chronicle music awards made the bad decision (in my opinion) to remove cover and tribute bands from the categories. If you are one of those cover/tribute band snobs, don’t even bother commenting as it will be deleted. It just shows you know nothing. The most talented musicians I’ve ever known throughout my life all play covers as well in addition to whatever other projects they have going. Most make the bulk of their living from cover music and only a very tiny, lucky fraction get to a place where they can make a living from original music. Most big bands like The Beatles started playing mostly covers if not all covers.

First and foremost, let me say how immensely grateful I am to be recognized at all and for everyone who took the time and effort to go fill out the form and vote. It really does mean a lot to me and please don’t let any of what follows undermine that very important point. I say that because I have a very complicated relationship with awards “competitions.” I always have. Not just this one. The main reason being that for every one person who is ultimately lifted up, there are countless people who end up feeling kind of bummed, “less than,” not-enough, unappreciated, or unrecognized and that’s a bummer to me. Being an artist of any sort is a very difficult life and I know how it feels to feel unseen or underappreciated. It probably doesn’t help that a LOT of us (maybe even most of us) suffer from imposter syndrome quite a lot!

Competitions such as this one can be extra frustrating in that they are purely by popular vote. No panel of industry judges, or academy or anything, although the ATBC is looking to remedy that next year with a combination of popular vote and industry experts as well. So it mainly just ends up being who can get the most people to go vote. Who has the largest base? Who is going to campaign and hustle and try to rally them to go vote?

This is where it gets complicated on a more personal level as well for me. I’ve been lucky enough to have a handful of videos go viral on Instagram and Tik Tok. This led to an influx of followers, so unlike most people I had a potential audience of 90K people on IG and 144K on TT (though as most people will tell you, you generally only reach a very infinitesimal fraction of those people). I am also someone who is very active on social media. In a contest where it’s purely about hustling voters to the poll, these things give me an edge. Now, the other side of that is that hopefully these people don’t just go blindly vote for me because I said so, but because they’ve seen all my various videos playing various instruments and singing so it’s not necessarily unearned in any, I just have the luxury of more resources and greater reach. There were many other nominees who I know to be some of the most amazing musicians I’ve ever seen, much less played with. Some of them weren’t even aware of this competition at all. Some of them got nominations but don’t live online all the time of have a huge audience to tell to go vote. I’m bummed for my friends who didn’t win or weren’t even nominated because I’m their biggest fan and think they absolutely deserve the recognition but hey that’s just not possible in awards competitions.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’ve always said that you absolutely should enjoy any kudos that come your way when they come. Enjoy that moment in the sun. Just don’t let it, or that lack of it define you or your validation. I can 100% guarantee you that there’s many folks out there you’ve never heard of (or maybe even you) who are light years beyond me on every instrument I play. My motto that I’ve repeated many times in life is “Keep your head down and do good work.” Do it for the journey, not the destination. Not the awards, not the praise. I will enjoy this moment in the spotlight, but I also enjoy it because I didn’t do it by myself. It took all of you as well, and I’d go so far as to say, your part in it was way more important than mine. I didn’t think I stood a chance. If you voted for me, I do not take that lightly and I do fully think about and appreciate each and every person who thought enough about me to do that. It’s not for me, it’s for us.

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