About

Locally grown, artisanal, hand-made, organic, renewable, craft, small batch, stunt-guitar playing.

I play guitar. It’s what I do. I’ve been doing it since I was 12 years old. My favourite thing about being a side-person is the opportunity to meet and make music with so many great people. It’s the variety that keeps things interesting and always presents me with new and interesting challenges. Through the relationships that I develop with everyone I continually develop as a musician, and, perhaps more importantly, as a person. My worst kept secret is that I basically want to play with everybody at least once. 

The live play-by-play is always available on Facebook and Instagram. Here’s a little more about me…

• Over 35 years playing.
• Two albums of original instrumental music.
• Multiple year nominee in the Forest City London Music Awards.
• Innumerable live performance as principle artist and as sideperson
• Appears on many recordings.
• Winner of the 2022 Forest City London Music Award for Jazz Instrumental Solo/Group.
• BFA, Jazz Performance and Musicology from York University
• MA, Musicology from McMaster University
• PhD, Communications Studies from the University of Leeds.

I have been a professional guitarist since the early 1990s. My early studies were with London guitarists Scott Szeryk and Ben Heywood. Throughout the 90s I studied music at York University, The University of York (UK), and Western University. During this time I studied extensively with Canada’s (and the world’s) top tier jazz musicians Lorne Lofsky, Al Henderson, Mike Murley, Barry Elmes, Mark Eisenman, John Gittins, Oscar Peterson, Bob Mover, among others. I also studied with renowned improvisers Casey Sokol and David Mott, musicologists Robert Bowman and Beverly Diamond, and “world” musicians Neil Sorrell (gamelan) and Trichy Sankaran (mridangam). I played professionally as a hired gun throughout this time both in Canada and the United Kingdom, receiving “honourable mention” from the BBC for my work with the University of York Jazz Orchestra.

In the late-90s/early-00s I released two albums of original instrumental music, led several instrumental groups locally and abroad that played a variety of stages including jazz festivals, took part in the burgeoning “CanJam” scene (Canadian “Jam Bands”) as part of Fly Fantastic, and travelled the world playing guitar in cruise ship bands. In 2005 I entered graduate school at McMaster University where I earned a Master’s degree studying changes in music distribution and discourse in the emerging online environment. From there I continued to the University of Leeds where I studied media piracy and copyright, earning my Doctorate in 2012. I have published a variety of articles on music and gender, music piracy, and music and affect. You can find the list of academic activities on my academic Curriculum Viatæ.

I lead my own improvised instrumental music trio with in-demand session players Kim Ladd and Ted Peacock. I am a busy side-person and first-call session guitarist. I regularly play with singer songwriter Deni Gauthier, with London’s favourite “covergrass” band Kevin’s Bacon Train, and with award-winning folk-rock outfit Broomsticks & Hammers, among many others. In 2019 I was voted into the Forest City London Music Awards Fantasy Band as London’s favourite guitarist and have been nominated for those same awards as an individual artist in the Jazz category and as part of Kevin’s Bacon Train and Broomsticks & Hammers multiple times in the Folk, Fan Favourite, and Cover Band categories. In 2022 I won the “Jazz Instrumental Solo/Group” award. I have been involved in the production of albums by a variety of local singer-songwriters. I am also a part-time faculty member in Western University’s Faculty of Information and Media Studies where I teach in the Media, Information, and Technoculture programme.

Here is a list of some the many artists I have worked with over the years:

• Deni Gauthier (FCLMA Winner)
• Kevin’s Bacon Train (FCLMA Nominee)
• Broomsticks & Hammers (Jack Richardson London Music Award Winner, Folk)
• Darren Powers
• Allison Brown
• Marty Kolls (FCLMA Nominee)
• Aaron Allen (CMAO, FCLMA Nominee)
• Connor Wilson
• Jim MacDonald
• Carly Thomas (FCLMA Winner)
• Phil Glennie
• Emily Garber (FCLMA Nominee)
• The London Rhythm and Soul Revue
• John Couture (Newport Electric, FCLMA Winner)
• Clayton Healey
• Lynne Hanson
• The Forest City London Music Awards All Star Band
• Emm Gryner (Juno Nominee)
• Brent Jones
• Chris Eh Young
• Ben Kaplan (producer, Juno Nominee)
• Lorne Lofsky
• Mark Eisenman
• Eric Stach

…and many more.