PureVolume

"I started singing in a band called Blue Bourbon, now called Mersy Street; I started with some guys in the neighborhood. We did all the high school gigs and stuff like that. Then in '73 after our lead guitar player, Jim Barnett, was killed in a train/car accident his parents gave me his guitar. I started playing really to honor this profound gesture of gratitude for our friendship. After a gift like that you can't just walk away and say, "Oh it's too hard or something". I still have that guitar too! '63 Fender Music master. In two years the band members changed and we started playing clubs, doing top 40 songs of the time. It was then (1975) I started writing songs and recorded the projects first album **Kingsford Drive**. That album is largely a tapestry of a 17-year-old kid's carefree days of summer. That was followed in '76 with **River Songs**. A collection of songs that were born, at first, out of just exploring the guitar and mornings I used to spend down at the Maumee River with friends watching the sunrise. Then it moves to some moments that reflect a real experience with God that changed my life forever. In '78 we (Dan Plath, Phil Reamsnyder) and I did a single with two songs, ** Break The Spell and In Your Dreams** that was placed on a compilation LP called Toledo Country, funny thing is we weren't country and at that time didn't really care for that genre. It was really a reach for exposure; none of us had been in a recording studio so that was new to us and really a lot of fun! From that point to '79 we sort of hit a low point and not much was going on.

From '80 to '82 we were writing and recording again. The drummer Phil Reamsnyder had a home recording studio, which was very rare at that time. We did an album of songs that were never released that I call **Revival**. However I'm now working on getting that out and in circulation. In 1983 I moved from Toledo, Ohio to Philadelphia and did some solo TV appearances '83 to '86 on a show called Triumphant. That was probably the most bizarre period in music for me. The CCM scene was just taking off and I was exploring Christian pop, Scott Wesley Brown, Amy Grant, 2nd Chapter of Acts, etc, that were very foreign to my taste and musical experience. With the exception of Russ Taft and Steve Taylor, Keith Green and people of that ilk I'm glad the 80's CCM music scene is passed. '86 to '88 I did a lot of writing and released an album called **Search** in '89.

Enter the '90s. This was one of my favorite times musically. Guitar bands were back and many of the sounds I grew up with were popular again. Bands like; The Beatles, R.E.M., Smashing Pumpkins, Pearl Jam, Alanis Morrisette and a number of other good ones that didn't stay together really kind of bridged a gap between musical generations that was lacking at the time. '90 to '93 I was furiously writing songs and trying to get a band together. I recorded two albums during that period called **9Pictures** and **Fictional Love**, mostly produced by Russ Richards. We were kind of a studio band that never released anything, until now. That was another time of exploration and discovery, really a very cool time! From '93 to '95 there wasn't a lot I was doing. Then in '96 I formed Mersy Street with Angela Burns, John Griggs and Tom Tracy. We released **Longing** and did some TV appearances on a show called Upper Room, played extensively around the mid east states. In '98 we recorded our most recent album, Freedom. .