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I am a third generation Cape Ann(Gloucester/ Rockport, MA) local. I have been brought up surrounded by a great family, amazing forests, beaches and sea shores as well as a community rich in art, music and history. I love the outdoors, always have. I hike, I bike, I climb (everything), I hunt, I fish and I forage. I have been an arborist since 1996, having discovered that my childhood dream of finding a job that pays me to climb trees all day ACTUALLY exists! I have been involved in music for most of my life, whether banging on pots, singing badly at family get togethers, suffering through clarinet lessons, banging on drums around campfires, struggling with my beloved (love/ hate relationship) banjo or wailing along on my Australian Kazoo (that's my didge kids!).
The Story of Baby- Sometime around 1999/ 2000, I was doing a tree job for one of my clients in Beverly Farms, MA. I cut down a small, hollow Red Maple and after I had cut off the branches I started cutting it up for firewood from the top down. With only 4 1/2 feet left of trunk, it dawned on me that this log could be used to make a didgeridoo! I brought it home, peeled off the bark, cleaned out the "mushy bits" on the inside of the log, shaped up and mouth piece and sanded it to perfection. My "Baby" was born, along with my love of this crazy (in the really cool way) aboriginal instrument. To put it in print, I owe a HUGE thanks to my good friend Dan "Shaggy" Shuman for a) telling me about/ showing me a "didge" in the first place, b) teaching me everything he knew about playing the silly thing (lots of fart noises kids) and c) being my didgeri-pimp and using his vast social connections to get me out there playing with as many folks as possible.
Since making my first didgie, I have found quite a few other hollow logs (just ask my wife) and have actually managed to make one other decent didge.... affectionately named Scar. Scar fought back in the carving process and due to an issue involving a sharp draw knife and my knee I missed my little brother's high school graduation. Sorry Eli!
A list of some of the cool groups I have been privileged to sit in with includes Big Ol' Dirty Bucket, Erinn Brown Band, The Dejas, Qwill, Radio Scott Void, The Willows, Birdface, Mocean 8, Three Ply and Machine 475 (to whom I also owe a HUGE thanks for many years of great music, 3 great albums, oodles of fun practices and shows and for providing a major stepping stone in my musical ability). I have sat in on countless jams in basements, backyards, bars and by camp fires in everywhere from my local haunts to as far west as sunny California, the Caribbean, New Zealand and even the home of the didgeridoo, Australia. |