I grew up in rural Pennsylvania Dutch a small village named Paoli, a Philadelphia suburb near Valley Forge. My parents were not particularly musically inclined but my maternal grandfather was a concert violinist. At age ten, my music teacher forced me to sing in front of the class. Embarrassed, I sang and was amazed that I could actually sing and carry a tune. This wonderful lady, Miss McCormick, was responsible for getting me out of my shell and into the wonderful world of music. She stuck by me and backed me for she new I had some kind of talent. I went on to play clarinet and won the coveted gold pin in elementary school which gave me a lot of confidence. In seventh grade I went on to saxophone and played in the marching band.
We had several county fairs in the area every summer and I’ll never forget the one that changed my life. It was the Berwyn Fire Company Fair in Berwyn, Pa., the summer I was 14. I heard a rock and roll group called “Johnny and the hurricanes” and I fell in love with the sound of the electric guitars. I asked for an electric guitar for Christmas that year. My parents got me one from Sears and Roebucks sometime in the fall and stored it in my dad’s closet until December 25th. What they didn’t know was every chance I got I would get the guitar out of the closet and practice. by the time Christmas came around I already knew how to play it!
When I felt I was good enough I decided to put a band together. It was called THE IMPALAS and we played mostly top forty of the day. Being from around Philadelphia that was mostly r & b. The band became successful locally and we recorded with and backed up some major national acts in the country. Throughout this time my high school academics were just not important to me and I got through, but not without a huge struggle. I ended up going to the University of Baltimore, Maryland. My grades were not high enough to be accepted to a good music school, so I studied marketing. During the college years, we changed the name of the band a couple of times and kept things together. We did so many different types of music performances during that time. One of the most memorable was our affiliation with the society orchestras–Lester Lanin and Romig, Carney and Lewis. We did the Plaza, exclusive private clubs for New York and Hollywood celebrities, the finest hotels in the Northeast and several 5th avenue apartments, estates from Southamton, Long Island to parties in Washington D.C. After I graduated, three of us that were left in the band decided we were going to be recording stars. We concentrated on recording and writing during the days and then playing our top forty gigs in the bars at nighttime. We got a few looks but nothing concrete so we decided to change our focus and became a SHOWBAND. We were good at comedy and putting on a show so we changed the name of the band to CATCH THREE. We started traveling all over the U.S., Canada and the Caribbean Islands about fifty weeks per year. I got married that first year to my wife, Sandi, who I met while performing near Ft. Myers, Florida.
We decided we would add two horn players to the act to add dynamics and versatility. Eventually we became CATCH FIVE, one of the top drawing acts in North America in the seventies. During these years I learned how to play some brass instruments to augment some of the arrangements we did. Chicago, Blood Sweat and Tears, big band and the like were some of our featured production numbers. putting together shows with dynamics, continuity, timing, pacing and framing became a real challenge with all of us. I use the same methods I learned to apply to my act of current day.
In 1980, Sandi and I decided to settle in Florida. We already had two children, Alison and Rick. I retired from the music business and found a career in real estate. Timesharing to be more specific. I was good at it. I found I could sell the stuff based on my personality and my knowledge of where my customers were from. I knew something about everywhere. After all, I had traveled for eight years. Somehow or other I got promoted into management and became important at the resort I worked. Eventually I got a godfather offer to be the top banana at a resort in Orlando, Florida. So we moved our family to Orlando. By this time we had our third child, Alexis. I did not like this new job-it was way too much stress in a helpless situation. I felt like I was the skipper of the Titanic. It was because of this job and others after it in the same business that I got back to music in 1986.
I became a solo performer with an acoustic guitar and a drum machine. I soon became bored with just playing guitar. I needed some more sound, So I got into electric synthesis and the midi world and became a computer savvy electronic musician who plays eight instruments on stage. I wanted my act to be authentic and not pretentious. This goal has paid off in many ways.
Today I perform in front of thousands of people. Orlando is truly a mecca of tourists from all over the world and the exposure I get is fantastic. The most important thing I want to do is just put a smile on a face. I am in a unique position to raise money for GIVE KIDS THE WORLD, which is a charity for terminally ill kids from all over the world that make a wish to have a vacation with their families here in Orlando for free. Many thousands of dollars has been raised for Give Kids, American Diabetes Association and Sugarbash, a non-profit 501C3 corporation for the ultimate cure of diabetes. My mom passed away because of diabetes at a young age and that is why I was committed to this cause.
If I can just continue to perform and be happy, that will be enough. I have a wonderful family and the opportunity to always be with them because of where we have chosen to live. It is because of my family that I have remained balanced and motivated.
