10 Years Burning Down The Road - Reflections on a Decade of Live Shows - Part 1 :

I started playing guitar in the fifth grade. In my mind, I could sing well enough but I could not dance, so I needed something to do with my hands.

No one in my family played music, but at a young age my Mom introduced me to her favorite band, The Beatles.

I remember wearing my Mom's Abbey Road shirt to school and how many times the kids would point at Paul McCartney asking "Is that Drake Bell?"

Drake and Josh was a surprisingly important show for an aspiring guitarist. I wanted my first guitar to be a red stratocaster, just like the Squier guitars that Drake played on the show. I was also into the All American Rejects (in no small part due to a Bionicle commercial).

When Guitar Hero came out, suddenly I had a new hero, Slash. I was a voracious reader, so when Slash came out with his autobiography I ate it up. I read it in the 6th grade, learning some phrases I probably shouldn't have learned.

My Mom read the book after me, remarking "I shouldn't have let you read that."

In middle school it was easy to find me with a guitar in my hand. Some of our neighbors still talk about the little boy walking around the neighborhood playing guitar.

By Junior High I was growing my hair out. I was obsessed with Jimi Hendrix. I had pretty much made guitar my whole personality.

By high school I was playing in the church band, as well as playing guitar in theatre productions at my high school. I was also in show choir, which I credit with expanding my vocal range (thank you Mr Wilson).

Where I grew up in Central Alabama, there were no "all ages venues." My hometown had one resturant that had live music. I tried to play there once. I played a free show as a test, they did not book me again.

I went to college at Auburn, about an hour and a half away from home. I had tried several times to assemble bands, practicing a few times with one at my fraternity. I remember performing with this band at an on-campus "battle of the bands." There were five contestants, the judges included the football coach's wife.

We didn't even place.

By the Summer of 2016, I was ready for something to happen, but I was intimidated. Musicians were (and still often are) expected to play for three hours, I couldn't fathom having that much material. I bought an acoustic guitar and a bass drum, a microphone and stand, all of which I still have to this day.

In my hometown of Prattville, Fox's Pizza Kitchen, one of the only resturants downtown, was starting to book music. They didn't have much of a budget, but they took a chance on me. As far as I recall that was my first paying gig.

In the Summer of 2017 I would release my first song on streaming platforms "The Storm," a dreamy ballad about fear, loss and tornado sirens.

I feel lucky that I got to experience such a close-knit musical community at Auburn. Looking back on it now, it seems that we were united, playing original music in a SEC college town.

Anyone who was around with ears and a heart will tell you that there was something special about the music scene that sprung out of the house parties at Shady Glenn. Shady Glenn was a collection of duplexes in downtown Auburn. They have since been demolished; replaced by some multi-story housing abomination.

Band like Lady Legs, Cherry Motel, Dogwood Lung, Make Sure, Leroy Gold, Bobby RocknRolls and Radio Decay were some of the groups I was lucky to see, hear and play with in the Auburn scene.

In the Summer of 2017 I formed the band WILK. WILK was a three-piece consisting of me, Reid Williams on bass and Peter Strickland on drums. Our first show was at Avondale Bar & Taproom in August 2017. I'll never forget that show, and the way the floor moved as the crowd jumped up and down.

The songs I wrote and played with WILK are still online as WILK'S Demos. We recorded with My friend Josh Jackson, whom I would collaborate with on two projects.

I relocated to Birmingham after graduation. Birmingham to this day still has one of the most vibrant music scenes in Alabama. There I formed a short-lived band called Bisbee inspired by a small desert town I had discovered in college and grown infatuated with. I would write several of my best songs while living in Birmingham, including "Shit Coffee."

In 2019 after Bisbee (the band) broke up, I embarked on my first tour, specifically to visit the town of Bisbee, Arizona. It was a short jaunt, but important, my first time playing outside of my home state and my first time visiting Arizona and my precious Bisbee.

To be continued...