My musical education began with Suzuki piano lessons at age four, where I started performing and learning by ear. I took these skills to a variety of musical contexts through the years. The music I teach and play now comes from two main sources.

One is the bluegrass, old-time, country blues, and western swing music I grew up with near Atlanta, Georgia. My parents play fiddle and banjo, and sing, and, having known them from a young age, I was immersed in their music, picking up a feel for traditional tunes. During high school I played in a garage rock band or two, but also found mentors in Ray Chesna, a Delta and Piedmont blues specialist, as well as Barbara Panter and Whit Connah of Hair of the Dog, a Cajun/honky-tonk band.

The second source is from my years at Hampshire College, where I completed a thesis in jazz arranging and composition. There I studied theory, improvisation, and writing with local jazz hero and renowned educator Andy Jaffe. Perhaps the biggest honor, though, was studying with legendary multi-instrumentalist Yusef Lateef, one of the greatest living treasures of the jazz tradition. He has been a constant inspiration in my performing, composing, and teaching.

After finishing Hampshire in 1999 I began teaching full time, both privately and as a teaching assistant in Hampshire’s music program. I stayed in Western MA until fall of 2003, during which time I was involved with a wide range performing groups. The first was a funk band, the Inner Orchestra (with fellow Hampshire grads), which played clubs throughout the Northeast, including opening slots for George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic, Michael Franti and Spearhead, and Soulive. Eventually I discovered a progressive-bluegrass kindred spirit in banjo innovator Gordon Stone. We performed frequently as a guitar-banjo duo and in Spring of 2001 I produced and composed the music for a concert called Srutidarpan at Hampshire, which involved myself, Gordon, two Indian musicians, and three jazz musicians, and fused bluegrass, Hindustani classical music, and modern improvisation. I formed Underbelly, an old-time string band with Alicia Rabins and Peter Siegel in 2002. We toured the Southeast and opened for Bob Dylan in Northampton MA in August ‘03.

In September 2003 I relocated to Brooklyn, NY. Since the move I’ve continued to teach privately and do freelance performing and music production work. My involvement in jazz has taken a backseat in the past two years, although I’ve had the chance to perform with nu-jazz trombone phenom Josh Roseman, trad-jazz guitar wiz Matt Munisteri, and with songwriter Howard Fishman, on whose recent album Look at All This I played guitar and mandolin. I continue to immerse myself in New York bluegrass, performing with John Herald, Greg Garing, Jen Larson, and the Klezmer Mountain Boys (among others), as well as with my own band, the Bluegrass Mob. More recently I’ve become reacquainted with the rock scene and in Spring 2005 formed the Buzz Buzz Tabernacle, a noise-country band, with drummer Leo Ferguson and banjo/fiddle experimentalist Jessi Carter.