He was a guitarist and singer-songwriter born in
Louisville, Kentucky, where his first chosen instrument was the drums.When he was around 10 years old he
started to have guitar lessons and decided that this was what he wanted to
concentrate on and by the time he was twelve he was performing at gigs.He became a member of The Octaves and
then towards the latter half of the 1960s he joined the locally popular
group Dusty who got a recording contract and moved to New York.He returned to Louisville after
just six months as he wanted to concentrate more on the songwriting side of
his career.He began to
perform gigs in Nashville and it wasn't long before he found himself
touring with Billy Swan and then after he returned to Nashville and was
performing one night he was spotted by Jimmy Buffett's manager and Chet
Atkins. They both recommended him to Jimmy Buffett and this led to him
working for several years with him as lead guitarist in the recording
studio, on tour and in the movie FM.At the end of the 1970s he decided to branch out on his
own and recorded his first solo album, Crazy Me. Continuing to perform and tour
nationally for several years, 1986 saw him releasing his second album Over
the Fence with The Sluggers.A further five years came and went before his Out of the Corner
was released in 1991 and it was soon after that he returned to Louisville
and started the band The Groovebillys. Appearing with several artists through
the course of his career including Skeeter Davis, Bo Diddley, Steve
Forbert, Mark Germino, Delbert McClinton, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and Pam
Tillis he appeared on albums that include his other solo albums such as Happy
Town, World Keeps Turnin' and Soul Season and also Son of a
Son of a Sailor by Jimmy Buffett, New Fingerprints by Greg "Fingers"
Taylor, Old Rock 'n' Roller by Greg Taylor, Dream Goes On by
Lee Clayton, Love Slave and Mellowlicious by Marshall Chapman
and Four by Billy Swan. As a songwriter he wrote his first when he was still at high
school and since wrote, and co-wrote with Matraca Berg, several successful
hit songs such as "Turning Away" by Crystal Gayle, "Cry on the Shoulder of
Love" by Martina McBride and "You Can Feel Bad" by Patty Loveless, which
also won him a 1997 BMI Country Award.Other songs include his co-written "Come Around" sung by
Kim Richey and featured in the movie For Love of the Game and his work has been performed and recorded by artists that
include Canned Heat, Dr. Feelgood,
Rick Nelson, Jerry Reed, Shakin' Stevens, B.J. Thomas and many more. Suffering from
cancer he passed away in June 2009 at the age of
58.
