my musical past

c/o Michael Avon Oeming

Once upon a time, in the city of Phoenix, in the county of Maricopa, in the state of Arizona, I frequently performed music as a solo singer/songwriter/guitarist. People seemed to like it alright, I was part of a regular open mic night, promoted and performed with Modest Proposal with "dark comic takes of love gone wrong" at venues like The Paper Heart, performed benefit shows (including for the West Memphis Three), and I even released some CDs that sold locally.

One of favorite shops, Eastside Records, reported in 2004 that my CD was one of their top sellers.

In 2005, I was quoted as being "the dark part of the evening." But I still did comedy shows like an event at Hollywood Alley with Neil Hamburger.

Brendan Kelley then did a really thorough interview with me and profile on my music, with a photo shoot by Jenny Johnson.

I was nominated for Best Song in the AZ Ska Punk Awards! The song was called "Powers," named after the comic written by Brian Michael Bendis. The artist for the title, Michael Avon Oeming, drew an illustration for me (which you can see at the top of this post) when I wrote him about it.

When I left Phoenix at the end of 2006, Kelley acknowledged it in such a kind way in his regular column, and also lent me space for a feature where contributors were providing end-of-year favorites lists.

 I had a going away show that included musical performances and a roast. The show was reported on as an item in a column that presented itself with the aesthetic of a gossip column, and the part about me was done in a humorous roast style that concluded with a nice sentiment sending me off to my next adventures.

There are other times I was quoted in stories about friends of mine (I even ended up in a documentary about one of them), and Nicki Escudero did a lovely write-up on AZCentral (the website for The Arizona Republic). Christopher Fanning did a write-up in College Times in 2004 that I am still trying to find a copy of.