news

Here comes summer! …and it finds me traveling the eastern seaboard of the United States. Well, some of it will be slightly inland. For the months of July, August and September I will be gigging in Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York, New Hampshire, Maine, with possibilities in other states already in the works. Similar to past instances, my website schedule is just now being updated so check it out – maybe I’ll be gigging near you!

This summer I will be gigging almost exclusively in conjunction with Music Supporting Music - raising money for non-profits. 100% of the proceeds from these concerts to go directly to the venue! We normally work with schools, but since it’s summertime, we’re helping out other non-profits!

IF YOU KNOW OF A SCHOOL MUSIC PROGRAM or any other non-profit organization that can use our help raising funds – click here and let me know!

May your favorite book land in your lap – just purring to be read,

Doug :D

Doug's Story

My story. Hmmm, My story. OK - well, it's pretty simple really. I've always been in love with music (in high school - that's referred to as a band geek). Of course, like most people, my folks had me take piano lessons as a young impressionable lad. Then, like most people, I quit! It wasn't until the 6th grade when I decided to have another go at music and, trust me, as an 11 year old boy, choosing to play the flute did not make me any sexier! By the time high school rolled around - I suppose my musicianship had reached a level that made my band director take note. Enough so, that anytime there was a "hole" in the instrumentation, he'd say: "No problem, I'll just get Doug to play it!" Well, that's how I learned the oboe, sax and xylophone. I was filling a need for the man giving out the grades! I started college at the University of Florida with the idea I was going to be an architect. Fabulous idea, the first semester. Let's just say the A's turned into B's and would have become C's had I not switched directions. It was on a beautiful Florida Fall day when I was in a design class where my best sketches were chastised and my worst were getting rave reviews that I found myself gazing out the window and captivated by my friends playing ultimate Frisbee on the lawn below. This is when I decided that my instruments had collected enough dust - so, to the music building I went.

A music education degree is rarely achieved on purpose. What I mean to say is that few people actually decide they "want" to teach music. It's often a means to an end (being around music). I tip my hat and bow down to the ones that are truly great music educators - I was not one of them! Don't get me wrong - most of my students had a blast and the "enjoyment" of music was conveyed, but I was meant to be a performer. However, it was during that fateful year at Dr. Phillips Elementary in Orlando, FL that I met a man named Malcolm Dalglish. At a conference one day, he played the hammered dulcimer for us and my life has never been the same since. To read the whole story - you can check out the insert of my "Rise In Love" CD, but to put it in 25 words or less: I told someone that I played the hammered dulcimer when I'd never really seen one up close yet. Then they booked me a gig! Whoops.

So here I am. At 37 years of age I'm a performing singer / songwriter, producer, studio musician, and nationally distributed artist. Somehow the guitar got picked up in the midst of all this indecisiveness. I have very little idea of what I want to do when I grow up, but I know it has to do with music. Till then, I'm open for suggestions...

Click here for Doug's press kit