SONGBOOK
I started taking guitar lessons from Joe DiPetro in his ‘parlor’ studio in the shadow of Connie Mack Stadium in North Philadelphia. It was a neighborhood rich in music: Italian festivals every other week, church and social club dances with live bands and the ever-presence of street-corner a cappella. Raised in my grandmother’s house by my mother and her sisters (who spoke in better four-part harmony than most could sing), my family sang at the drop of a hat. By the mid-sixties, I was working in coffee houses during the week and with a band on the weekends. Proximity to the Jersey shore and an old Dodge van made ‘gigging’ a year-round business with just enough income to keep going.
Early appearances on Philly TV (Mike Douglas, Summertime on the Pier, Jerry Blavat, Jerry Lewis Labor Day Telethon, and others) led to a 1966 recording session at Cameo Parkway and the birth of roadwork. I toured in and out of the country for years, with a several year layover in Santa Fe. No longer a ‘club singer’, I last plied this trade in Atlantic City from 1981 to 1994.
I began writing songs the day Joe DiPetro put chords in my hands and found great pleasure in the pains of writing lyrics. I am very fortunate to have had so much stagetime as a singer/songwriter.
Early appearances on Philly TV (Mike Douglas, Summertime on the Pier, Jerry Blavat, Jerry Lewis Labor Day Telethon, and others) led to a 1966 recording session at Cameo Parkway and the birth of roadwork. I toured in and out of the country for years, with a several year layover in Santa Fe. No longer a ‘club singer’, I last plied this trade in Atlantic City from 1981 to 1994.
I began writing songs the day Joe DiPetro put chords in my hands and found great pleasure in the pains of writing lyrics. I am very fortunate to have had so much stagetime as a singer/songwriter.