I grew up on the flat-as-a-game-board, high plains of West Texas. The locals say if you look far enough out on the horizon you can see the back of your own head. The wind rarely stopped to catch its breath. The locals also say, “the people are the mountains out here.” Amen. None better.

   As clear as the view was, my future lay out of sight over that horizon. Listening to the Beatles and Motown hits on KOMA at night under the covers on my transistor radio, I never imagined all that lay ahead.

  My college years were interrupted first by surgery for scoliosis. I spent nine months in a body cast, played guitar every day and read all the New Testament for the first time. Both would determine my future. A second break from university came when I joined a friend’s band. We spent nearly three years on the road playing pop music at Disneyland, Disneyworld, USO tours and night clubs.

   Returning to college, I graduated from TCU with a BA in English and Bible, followed by two years of graduate study in literature at the University of Texas in Austin. My plan was to become an English teacher. Maybe write some books someday. But a college friend who migrated to Nashville expanded my horizon to the beautiful rolling of hills Music City where…

…I first toured with Amy Grant and Michael W Smith while pursuing my own recording and songwriting. Much to my amazement, Debbie Boone, Kathy Troccoli, BeBe and CeCe Winans, Sandi Patty, Susan Ashton and many others recorded my songs. Via Dolorosa received a "Song of the Year" Dove Award and Man After Your Own Heart another Dove for inspirational song of the year.

   As a recording artist, I found it best to write from my own life and experience. So, my solo albums reflect my journey and Christian faith, including La Vie, Torn Between Two Worlds, the Wind & the Wave, Soundtrack of My Soul and Songs in the Key of Awe.

   Other musical opportunities came along, too. Dozens of trips playing music and leading worship around the world. I cowrote two youth musicals and a musical aimed at Broadway. I even got a chance to compose music for TV, including the theme song to America’s Dumbest Criminals, What Were You Thinkin?

   Back in my Texas childhood I wasn’t thinking any of that would happen.

   Along the way, the seed of the dream to write books took root. Ice Cream as a Clue to the Meaning of the Universe, an autobiographical book (a selfie) about my life to that point, and Letter to a Grieving Heart were published by Harvest House. Letter to a Grieving Heart came from a deep valley of grief, (where the album, Torn Between Two Worlds was created.) I’m amazed and humbled that it has sold over 50,000 and continues to be a source of comfort for those facing the loss of a loved one. I recorded Songs to a Grieving Heart with dear friends as a multi-artist companion album.

   My horizon as an author broadened with my first two novels releasing in 2023: MUSIC CITY MAYHYMN, a detective story with a redemptive twist, and UNTAMABLE, an epic saga of a child prodigy classical pianist who faces life and death challenges growing up in the madness of 1930s Germany and WW2.  These were followed by the 2024 non-fiction release of SACRED vs. SHINOLA – Letters to my children from the kitchen table.

   And the beat goes on. My most recent musical project is HOPE ROPE, a collection of thirteen “Songs 4 kids (moms & dads 2),” inspired by being a dad to three remarkable children.

   My friends know me as a connoisseur of ice cream and collector of ice cream scoops. But my favorite titles are “dad” to my three treasures, Willow, Wyatt and Sawyer, and “husband” to my loving wife, Karla.

   I’m a long way from my dusty West Texas childhood. In fact, as Paul McCartney put it, “…I have memories longer than the road that stretches out ahead.” But I still have dreams and purposes to pursue, and loved ones to love. I trust you do, too. It’s my hope that some of my music and writings feed your soul and your own dreams, purposes, and loves.

  From here, if I look far enough out in the distance, just over the horizon is heaven. Where it’s always been. I can’t imagine what lies ahead.