Me

The main "About" section is a little misleading.  Yes, all those things are true, but I do a lot of things.  I'm a father of 4.  I was a boy in Kentucky.  I remember Germany.  I prefer spontaneity.  The main about serves the primary purpose of this site.  To get to know the musical side of me to see if I'm a good fit for your venue.  Well there's more music in me!

I currently play bass in a 5 piece band, Cadre.  I've been given a lot of latitude to compose my part the way I think is best, but the songs are not mine.  Some belong to one or another member of the band, and some belong to the whole band.  We also do covers, and if that's what you're looking for, I can get that setup too!  In fact, I think I'll add that somewhere on here soon...

What's relevant to share on a site named after me?  Well.  You'll learn more about me in the Blogs section or if you book me for a gig.  So, here's an image of me taken by Adam Maly.  Adam and I met through the Box Factory open mic nights hosted by Mike Talbot back in the day.  I left town for several years, and on returning, I booked a gig at the Chocolate Cafe in St. Joe.  Adam happened to be in there and sent me a copy of this image.  I used it on a banner once when I hosted an open mic at the Livery in Benton Harbor.

I think this says a lot about me.  I have the Fender t-shirt.  My first guitar was a fender F-200, and the guitar pictured is one of my acoustic Fenders.  I still have my first guitar, I got it when I was 6, but I didn't start playing it until I was 12.  I'm playing an acoustic/electric Ibanez now, darker wood, and I don't need a wire coming out of the sound hole to amplify.

There's a ring on my finger.  It's is a puzzle ring.  I've always been a fan of puzzles.  Really, any kind of puzzle.  Cryptograms, word search, crossword, sudoku, Rubik's... rings.  I think the simplest puzzle ring is 4 bands, but 6 bands is a better challenge.  I haven't seen one more than 8, and I can, in fairly short order, put a them back together.  I think the first puzzle I had was a red and blue plastic sphere with 12 faceted cutouts of different shapes.  I used to challenge adults on how quickly we could get the shapes in.  I think I was 4.  I had a trick.  Most people grab a shape turn the sphere to find the right hole, then place the shape.  I figured out turning the sphere in a pattern and then grabbing the corresponding yellow shape block was faster.  Feel free to use that.

I'm a hat guy, I don't understand why most people stopped wearing hats (or only some baseball cap/trucker cap thing).  This hat is a Santana hat, I'm not sure how many collections have come out, but it's an older one.  The style is called "cadet" and it has an adjustable back that reads, "Peace."  There's a real leather cap band and brim rim and a silk lining interior.  You can't see it in this photo, but there's a dove on the brim, you can just make out the white edge of it on the upper right.  The dove is holding an olive branch, which is the biblical imagery of peace from the Noah story.

Here are three things not in this photo:

I'm a musician.  This is my career.  You might see in the picture I seem to be playing a guitar.  I can assure you, I indeed play the guitar.  I also play a variety of instruments including bass guitar, piano, harmonica, trumpet... and really just about anything you put in front of me.  I sing.  But musician is a lot more than that.  I know which speakers are best for different spaces and can do the Ohms math to wire in parallel or series.  I can wire all the channels on a mixing board and I know what all the switches, dials, and faders do.  I know how to move in and out of the microphone to get a different mix.  Beyond that, I know why C is played with an F# sometimes and F natural at other times.  I studied music theory, and I know all the chords... and I DON'T have to play a G on the bass just because you're playing a G chord on the guitar ROB... I mean.  Chord theory allows for inversions, and sometimes you want that for a more appealing movement from one section of a song to another.  I can tune my guitar by ear. Well, I usually check my A to a datum, the A note is 440hz and is the foundation of all other notes... either another instrument, a tuning fork, or one of a dozen awesome apps can provide the reference tone.  After that, I tune each string by harmonics then check the fret relations.  Some guitars can be a little off, so you have to fudge the tuning a little.

I'm also a pilot.  This is my profession.  That's what I studied at Western Michigan University's College of Aviation.  Pilotry.  (Autocorrect is telling me that's not a word).  I hold a commercial certificate for single engine land with an instrument rating and complex & high performance endorsements.  The last time I flew, it was the Ford Tri-Motor that was in town in 2023.  My buddy took me out for Father's Day and upgraded my ticket to the front seat.  I showed the captain my pilot certificate, and just after takeoff he handed me the controls.  I had 11 souls on board and angled out toward the St. Joe river and did a long roll from south through west around the city and lined up with the runway.  The captain landed and let me know he's a certified instructor for the Tri-Motor, and endorsed my log book with 0.3 hrs of Pilot in Command.  In short, it was AWESOME!!!

I do data.  That's my occupation.  I'm not sure how I learned this, but I work with SQL primarily to query databases for report automation.  I'm an expert in Google Sheets, which may sound funny.  I'm also an expert in Excel, though I haven't used it much in the last few years.  Google Sheets is a fully functioning spreadsheeting tool with collaborative features that make it superior to Excel in some aspects.  I spent 5 years as a Continuous Improvement coach, and my teams frequently recorded significant efficiency gains.  Mostly, this was achieved by finding repetitive tasks.  Then, in some cases, I could write a script to automate that task (other times, we might reorganize a process to group like-tasks).  I can script in Apps Script (JavaScript purposed for Google's business suite) and Visual Basic for Applications (aka VBA this is Visual Basic purposed for Microsoft's business suite).  I'm frequently responsible for detailing the results of queries, observing trends, showcasing statistically significant anomalies, and presenting in front of large groups.

There's a lot more about me.  But here we have 1000 words on a photo and a little about my career, profession, and occupation.  I also have a motorcycle and a small aluminum boat.