How did you get into making music, and how did arts education (or lack thereof) affect you and your music?

I was at a neighbors garage sale when I was eight or nine and they had a steel string guitar which I strummed with my thumb for hours. The next day I had a blister covering most of my thumb. From then I moved on to strumming tennis rackets. At 11 I began guitar and at 20 I began banjo which is now my first love. In a time of unemployment and a rough winter of 2003, I began the Spaghetti Western String Co. group with Nicholas Lemme and today we are three records deep with much more to come. Ethan Sutton joined in 2005 and Paul Fonfara began with us in 2006. Everyone in the group has their own origin stories but mine stems from the garage sale guitar and years of watching Mister Rogers Neighborhood – excellent music on that program for kids.

I was fortunate to have a great music program in middle school with a separate guitar program for general music students. These classes introduced me to the musical possibilities that can be realized with a cheap plywood guitar and a good instructor. From there my instruction came from other musicians – from my cousin who played blues in his garage to Leo Kottke. When I started on banjo, my education was from the records of my heroes; Earl Scruggs to Bela Fleck and everyone in between.

Over the years I’ve studied with other players, learned theory and technique; but have found that I’ve learned more from spending an afternoon picking with the Swsco. guys or with other local players. What makes Swsco. functional as an ensemble is that all of us have a music education background – chord theory, harmonic/melodic theory etc. as well the will to create music for the sake of making noise. When I listen to tapes of our rehearsals or our records, I hear the “schooled” parts in songs where we used our knowledge of composition, chord theory, harmony etc. and I also hear the parts where we are just playing… and improvising. The contrast between the two makes for interesting music. At least we think so.

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This post is part of our 60-hour blogathon in support of music development and literacy within the Twin Cities. We appreciate you visiting the site – but before you go, we ask that you consider clicking the Donors Choose banner below and giving what you can to help enrich the lives of a number of local children through music and reading. Thank you. – Culture Bully