Well, lets see..  I was born in Hardwick VT.  Played piano at 9 then rebelled and quit to do what, at the time, I thought was more important.  Things like playing baseball, figuring out how to make chords on a 6 string guitar, and spending countless hours playing country music records, lifting the needle, writing down some lyrics, and trying to put the needle back down where it was.  (That became a by-gone skill).  Went to St J Academy and played the sax in the school band, bored-bored-bored, playing only sheet music stuff and never being allowed to improvise.  But I did mess around with a high school rock band, playing rhythm guitar in a band we called Rising Sun (imagine that!)

Eventually, after 30+ years of chasing the capilalistic manipulated dream of becoming financially succesful in corporate America (by helping to make other people very wealthy) I got up the courage to throw that belief-crap away.  About 5 years ago..... I started playing open mics, then began hosting open-mics and booking myself out doing solo gigs.  In 2007, I started my first band since the 1969 Rising Sun band and called it The Burke Mountain Bandits.  I've never looked back and every day I wake up very proud to be associated with some of the very best musicians you'll find anywhere.