In high school things got a little bit more serious and I was in a band called THE WANTED. There were two incarnations of the band, one with a female singer(aka my sister) and one with just da boys after she had graduated. In 1982 we got the chance to open for local legends of the time CAT'S EYE at a huge bottle club in central Maine. Nowadays it's hard to envision the old club scene of the 80's but it was exploding after the great disco crash of '79. CAT'S EYE had two Mercedes trucks, enough equipment to play the civic center, and a road crew. A guy on stage set up my amp, offered to tune my guitar and bring me a water... total rockstar treatment. By the way, this has never happened since then so if I had visions of grandeur for my life on the road I was sadly mistaken. Oh well, it's still fun! Now a slight pause for a couple dark years at college.

1987-1992- Big Hair Days

     In the summer of 1987 I got a call to audition for a band called CRYBABY. I was playing bass guitar at the time, probably the best thing I got out of my college days because on campus they were too many great guitar players and very few bassists.  I locked myself in a room and got my bass chops loosely together so I could at least jam with people. I got the part and stayed with the band until it broke up in 1992. CRYBABY was a machine: a well run business which took image, marketing, and music very seriously. We played at least four-to- five days a week all over New England and Canada. In 1988 a video was submitted to MTV for a show that was called BASEMENT TAPES and we came in 2nd place for the whole nation by vote. Not bad for a band from Maine who was competing with videos from LA and New York. I learned a lot from the leaders of this band and am very thankful for my opportunity to be a part of it.

1993-2000's- More Big Hair and Spandex

     Coming off of the road in 1992 and returning to a somewhat normal life was not in the cards for us bums so the drummer Mike from CRYBABY and my old high school bestie bandmate Corey got together and formed a band we dubbed ZACC TYLER. The name you ask? It's not a real person... (quite confusing) Think JETHRO TULL...nobody in that band with that name, Jethro Tull was the inventor of the seed plow... Our drummer boy claims ZACC TYLER was the inventor of the inside-the-egg-shell-scrambler. Let's go with that...

    Trying to win over the loyal fans of CRYBABY on the local circuit was difficult, but we set a course to be different. We really wanted to focus on writing our own material and by our first show in April '93 we had a single to hand out that included the songs "Waing for Romeo" and "Say". Those songs ended up on our EP "Trail of Restless Dreams" in late '93. We sold quite a few copies, a ton of other merchandise, and got a little airplay on WTOS(thank you). Our booking agency was out of Vermont so we traveled and traveled, mostly in the blinding snow. I will mention that during a little time in the mid '90s we had hired two lead  singers, both of whom were great and are friends to this day, but we always seemed destined to be a three piece band. We had an awesome 17 year run full of enough shenanigans to write a book and even though I think I officially quit a little bit ago, after a nine year hiatus we recently joined back up and did a couple of well received shows. It's fun to bring tons of gear, set it up behind you, and just be fridges loud! I will also give honorable mention to our sound person, affectionately known as "ZT Wench" (she came up with it), who was there at the beginning and works with me to this day.

(Holy shit this guy writes a lot....does he even work a day job?)

2004-2015-Cowboy Boots & Cool Shirts

     I think it was around 2000 I ended up going to a country show at the Augusta Civic Center. I knew someone in the office so I got pretty good seats.  The music I was listening to at the time was pretty far removed from any type of country, but I figured they had a beer tent and I'd suffer through. LITTLE  TEXAS was the first act (there was a guy before them but I don't remember his name, sorry) and as I'm listening I'm starting to realize that I know most of their songs. Lights go dark and there's a really cool banjo intro coming through the sound system. Lights come up and there is BLACKHAWK doing their cover of Andrew Gold's "Lonely Boy"..... perfect vocals, sound, just an aura of this band all dressed in black that was majestic. Their guitar player in leather pants, hair halfway down his back, playing a Les Paul through two Marshall half stacks... I was hooked! The next day I bought all three Cd's they had out and planted a seed to give this new genre to me a dedicated try.

     The name EMERALD SKY popped into my head in the early 2000's and wouldn't let go. I ended up making a logo, fake Cd covers, made-up song titles, all that goofy stuff. Jeff was the first to come on board and we soon found some other players and did our first shows. After a few member changes, and I truly mean no disrespect to any of the great players we had in the beginning, with Lenny, Glenn and Mike coming on board we really came together as a band around 2005ish and came out swinging in 2006. We were all focused on writing and had a single which included "Lonely Nights" and "Broken Man" for our first shows. We would burn them ourselves, label em,  put them in a paper sleeve and send them to the crowd like Chinese throwing stars. We did have an incident in Windham Maine where I caught a girl in the neck with one of our sailing death CDs but she recovered and thankfully didn't sue us. In 2007 we released our first full CD "Black Roses & Gasoline" and in 2009 we released our 2nd CD "It's About Time". Being in this country rock market gave us lots of opportunities to play beyond the bar scene. We did fairs, festivals and got to share the stage with some pretty famous people. Local radio was really supportive of us as well. We took a much needed break from the week-to-week grind around 2015 but we still get together and play occasional shows.

2015-? The Older and No More Wiser Years

      So where am I now? In the last few years I have had a great run as a duo act with my buddy Lenny, who is now a lodge master for the Masons (I call him Grand Poobah) so his time is very limited and as such is on a playing hiatus. I had two great projects with a band we called "Out of the Blue" and one named "Taylor Road"; Did a stint with a  band called "No Guts No Glory" (great band, check them out!} and now here I am... for the first time in my whole career, stepping out solo! I still get nervous, which I guess is a good thing, and I have band meetings every Monday so I can lecture myself on my shortcomings over the weekends I play.. I love to perform... I enjoy interacting with every one and I thank you all for the support you have given me as I figure out this new adventure! 

(There! I'll shut up for a moment.... Love YA!)