âThin Iceâ embraces a broad palette of pop-rock music - 15 provocative, adeptly written songs, all beautifully arranged, performed and produced. ADDICTIVE.

15 MP3 Songs
POP: Pop/Rock, ROCK: Adult Contemporary



Details:
BITS & PIECES OF MY LIFE

INFLUENCES: Jackson Browne, Randy Newman, Paul Thorn, Peter Gabriel, Bruce Hornsby, Tina Turner, The Beatles & George Martin, Garth Brooks, Rolling Stones, Bobby Caldwell, Elton John & Bernie Taupin, Sheryl Crow, Cris Rea, Eagles, Don Henley, Huey Lewis, Dire Straits, Mark Knopfler, Aerosmith, Bonnie Raitt, Lyle Lovett, Toy Matinee, James Taylor, Steps Ahead, Sting, Supertramp, Cream, Eric Clapton, Muddy Waters, T-Bone Walker, Thomas Dolby, Steely Dan, Phil Collins, Jimmy Webb

IN THE BEGINNING:
I grew up in the militaryâ¦an âArmy Brat.â We lived all over the world, spent a lot of time traveling by car, and to help pass the hours, my Mom would start singing some old nursery rhymes, and get my brother, Rob, and me to chime in by making up our own lyrics to the songs. As I recall, the dumber we wrote, the more laughs weâd have, and the faster the time would go by. A good thing, which probably drove Dad nuts, but which, I suppose was the origin of my love of music, and of me becoming a serious songwriter somewhere along the line.

RECORDS FROM THE STATES:
We moved to France when I was about 12, and shortly thereafter I found myself totally enthralled by early rock n rollâ¦records from the states. There was Elvisâ¦but especially his guitar player, Scotty Moore. Bill Haley and the Comets released Rock Around The Clock & See Ya Later Alligator. Conway Twitty caught my writerâs ear in a big way with âIts Only Make Believe,â a beautiful, gut wrenching ballad which would later become âour songâ for my 1st ever girlfriend and me. I probably should have known this was not the best song choice for everlasting love.

GUITAR IDENTITY CRISIS:
But it was the sound of the guitars that really magnetized me to the music, and for my 13th birthday my folks gave me a gut string Spanish guitar, which I really loved, but which I never could get to sound like the records. A few months later, one of my Dadâs lieutenants, and a player himself, would tell me, âWell, Son, itâs because those are ELECTRIC GUITARS.â Electric? Donât forget, we were in France, where Rock ânâ Roll and its cool tools of the trade hadnât arrived yet. He proceeded to show me his âax,â the first electric guitar I ever saw, and I just had to have one, so I worked in the post commissary for months, carrying bags of groceries for enough tips to finally buy this beautiful German cherry red electric guitar â a huge thrill â but after weeks of trying, I was frustrated and still unable to get that magic, illusive sound. Only then did I get another âtip,â again from the lieutenant, that one additional little piece of gear would be needed to make my life completeâ¦surprise!...an AMPLIFIER. So, it was back to the commissary for yet another eternity of lugging groceries for loose change â but I finally had my stuff.

JC & THE BOYS:
The following year, I played in my very first band at Paris American High School (Paris, France), where the leader of the band was a really talented guy named Jerry Corbitt, who several years later would become a founding member with Jesse Colin Young, of the iconic band, The Youngbloods, a wonderful group of the 70âs, still revered today for their folk-rock anthem, âGet Together.â More on Jerry later, as he would become part of fateâs master plan for my CD. Then it was back to The States, my last 2 years in high school, playing in a couple more bands, and then â college.

COLLEGE DAZE:
For a guy with an undying passion for music, my choice of a college was what one might consider exceedingly counterintuitive. For one thing I wanted to serve my country; for another I was really proud of my Dad and his career in the army, and wanted to follow in his footsteps. So I decided to apply to the United States Military Academy â West Point â Not exactly a proving ground for aspiring musicians and songwriters, and after a long qualification process, including coercing my brother to whack me on top of the head with a baseball bat (i.e. I needed an extra ½â to meet West Pointâs minimum height requirements), I was accepted into the small band of brothers who 4 years later would become leaders of Americaâs national defense.

BUT FIRST THINGS FIRST: I guess you could say that Beast Barracks, the first 60 days of an interminably long Plebe Year, is designed in part, to reduce everyone to the lowest common denominator. That is, youâre all slammed, heads shaved, into the same uniforms & spit shined shoes, taught how to act the same, march the same, talk the same (mostly âyes sir, no sir no excuse sir), think the same, and, basically, you are hammered into a new universal you. To me, it felt like the powers that be were definitely trying to take the rock ânâ roll outta the boys. But the real question was: âCould they ever lobotomize ME enough to take this boy outta rock ânâ roll?â

AND THE ANSWER: The answer came quickly, as I was asked during the 1st semester of Plebe Year by a group of upperclassmen, one of whom was a star Army football player, to play in their band, âThe Inmates.â I naively accepted, not realizing that this would turn me into a whipping post for other upperclassmen who believed it was totally out of line for a low-life plebe like me to commingle with the privileged class. After my becoming a piñata for awhile, the football player put a lid on the harassment and, âhumble me,â I continued to play with the band for the next 2 years.

SENIOR YEAR MUSIC: Every senior class at West Point produces an extravaganza called âThe Hundredth Night Show,â which in our case was a musical comedy entitled âSilver Thumb,â a spin-off of the James Bond movie, âGoldfinger.â My first theatrical credit â Wow! â and a challenge successfully met, dimmed only by the fact that my ability to transcribe my songs into something useful for the orchestra was quite pathetic, and the bandmaster just about soiled his shorts when he found out about it. I explained to him how unfortunate it was that West Point did not offer so much as a single music elective course in all 4 years, but he didnât appreciate that either.

TO BE CONTINUED SOONâ¦â¦Graduation, War Music, Hollywood & Beyond