Who I Am

Born outside of Atlanta, Georgia in Decatur and raised 30 miles south in McDonough, you would never believe I grew up in a rural area.  You can catch glimpses of the way it was throughout the movie Smokey and the Bandit, as a good portion of the film was filmed there.  As a kid I remember entertaining visitors at the house by pulling out a denim colored portable Sears record player. I would sing along and air guitar to a stack of 45 records that included Waylon Jennings, Don Williams, and John Anderson.  It wasn’t until high school that I really got into playing guitar, and when assigned to pick out a poem for recital and explanation in literature class, I asked if I could sing and play John Anderson’s Seminole Wind.  That particular song really tugged at my heart. At that time, land was being developed on the remaining farm land, kudzu fields, and pine forests around my home.  I connected to the song, and I realized music could be a voice for me too. 

So, I started writing songs.  At first, it was more like journaling and writing out my thoughts. Then, I started rhyming the lines and adding guitar to back me up.  I indulged in the albums of artists from over 4 decades like Merle Haggard, George Jones, fellow Georgian Alan Jackson, George Strait, Randy Travis, Charley Pride, and the band Alabama. My lifestyle was blue-collar worker by week and honky tonk roamer by weekend, just like in their songs.  Slowly, I started sharing songs with friends and family and soon they were requesting I play them again.  I found small opportunities to play at restaurants and hangouts to share my songs while covering my heroes too.  

Then there’s Nashville.  I remember visiting Nashville when I was four or five years old.  On return from a family trip in Mississippi, we went through Memphis to see Graceland (no doubt, Elvis was an influence too) and then to Music City.  I vividly remember all the flashing lights, touristy stores, and museums named after artists like Conway Twitty, Willie Nelson, and Johnny Cash.  Little did I know, I would make the trek there for my own endeavors. Seventeen years later, I vacationed there with a friend for a week, and by chance we stumbled upon a writer’s night at the Broken Spoke Cafe in the downstairs of a hotel off Trinity Lane.  I fell deeper in the spell of country music that night.  I had found the source of the songs, the backstory of the town, a community of songwriters who just wanted to sing their own songs just like me.  After a couple more trips back and forth from Georgia just to watch, I played an open mic writers round. I came off the stage and the host handed me her card and said, “Call me and I will schedule you for a round next time.”  That’s all I needed to hear to get the wheels turning to move to town.  In due time, I loaded up the truck with a suitcase, guitar, and a stack of writing notebooks and moved to Tennessee.  I played writer’s nights constantly, started making connections, met a few big-wigs on Music Row, heard a few yes’s, and a lot more no’s. — Sounds like a song don’t it!  Somewhere in all that, I lost my way musically.  More so, I lost my why.  Life happened too, and these days you'll find me in Missouri being a family man.

Nashville’s Gone, the upcoming EP, gives you a glimpse into my honky tonk life, shares my sentiments about country music, and reflects my past experiences.  No regrets and no hard feelings, just a man and the resurgence of his musical journey.  The industry has changed, and I am excited at the opportunity to share my music like I always dreamed I would. I hope you enjoy the music as much as I enjoyed channeling it. – Dave