Simple... I'm just an ordinary guy that likes to write songs!

I've always loved making music. After a couple of years of grade school piano lessons, I took drums lessons for several years. I played in all the school bands... I entered area solo contests... I taught lessons and played in wedding bands instead of flipping burgers!

Then in my college days, my mom bought an acoustic guitar for $3 bucks at a garage sale, affectionately referred to as the "trash bag guitar" because that was the carrying case... a trash bag!

At about the same time, I had joined a Christian fellowship group on campus... we'd sing our praise and worship songs accapella because no one could play musical accompaniment.

Hey, why don't I learn how to play guitar!

So with the occasional help of a friend, I learned how to play the basic chords that many of the songs contained. And the strumming/rhythm part came naturally from my drum background. Soon, me and the "trash bag guitar" were a regular staple of the fellowship worship times!

A year or so after college, I moved from my home state of Ohio to the Chicago area (to date the girl that would eventually become my wife!). I joined a young adult prayer group, and started playing guitar and leading worship on a regular basis... this greatly improved my novice guitar chops, not to mention my spiritual life!

At about the same time, I also got linked up with a Christian rock band that needed a drummer. And just about everyone in the band wrote songs, so why not me too! I started writing, but found that most of my songs, with a couple of exceptions, were duds (don't ask about the song that Brian Fife turned into a horrible country parody!).

Then I tried writing a praise song.

Simple chorus, simple verse, simple chords, simple melody.

That song was "I Will Exalt"... and the rest is history. Friends loved it, the prayer group loved it, the Chicago-area Charismatic Conference loved it, my parents loved it (but parents always love things like that!). Bottom line: the song helped people praise God! I had stumbled upon a God-given talent that was years in forming.

Nowadays, I'm a husband and father of two kids with a day job. I finally own a "real" guitar. And I'm still writing praise and worship songs. I've separated "the wheat from the chaffe", so to speak, and recorded some of the best material... New Creation is the result!

I hope you enjoy listening to it...

I hope you get the sheet music and give the songs a try at your place of worship...

But most of all, I pray that by the power of the Holy Spirit, this music would deepen your relationship with God our Father through his Son Jesus Christ.

Peace!