Born and raised in Arkansas and like so many folks here I started playing music in church, time signature-less gospel-type medicine.

After some years of dalliance and work in Argentina and India, I returned to Fayetteville to be with my best friends and my cat. Apart from singing and playing the horn, I run a nonprofit law firm that serves survivors of trafficking and other sorts of violence.

My genre is rock, and some of it the chillest rock you’ll find around.

And, why music? At a yoga school in Karnataka, my beloved teacher said that happiness is mental silence. Not like a morose silence, but one pregnant with creativity and bliss. Music helps me go mind-silent and this helps keep me present, discerning, and kind.

And, if I’m being totally honest, music because I enjoy performing! It lifts me into that afore-mentioned mental silence. And to be there on stage with people who have trusted me enough to entertain them, and enough—maybe—to get us all raucously mind-hushed. That is a rare joy. It’s like swimming holes or cuddling with a beloved creature.

11-year-old me. The bangs, the Sunday best—those kicks! The trumpet used to feel so heavy.