Hi—I’m glad you found your way to my site. I’m really pleased to have this opportunity to connect, and to share my songs.

It’s all about enjoying the music and each other’s company. I live on an island in the Pacific Northwest, in a community full of musicians, artists and people with a deep appreciation for life. I am fortunate that my days bring many chances to reflect and compose, to play and collaborate, to be with good folk.

Although I play most any music genre, the focus here is on the songs I’ve written. All on this site are originals; some were penned long ago yet not recorded until now, and others were put down more recently. They are each available here as a free, downloadable mp3—I hope you enjoy them.

I am truly grateful for each of you—friends and family, fellow musicians and fans. This is a special time in my life, with moments to savor and songs to sing.

“It’s interesting we use the word ‘play’
to describe how we make music.”

I was born in St. Louis and raised on the family farm in southeast Missouri. It didn’t take me long to figure out that farming was not my calling. I left the farm and the chores to enter a Catholic seminary in high school. Here, I learned two things: playing the guitar came naturally to me, and being a priest wasn’t my calling either. I stayed in the seminary through college, then left with a philosophy degree in one hand and the guitar in the other. Neither hand held much hope for financial success or upward social mobility.

I’ve always enjoyed performing and playing with other musicians. I played with bands throughout my school years, later joining existing bands and forming new musical groups in St. Louis and Jackson Hole, Wyoming. While living in Wyoming,

I found a new calling––cowboy campfire singer. “Yippee-i-o-ky-a!” (again, not much hope for wealth and/or fame). I learned many cowboy songs and yes, you’ve guessed it, the cowboy life was not for me.

In 1983, I found the Northwest (just after Lewis and Clark), eventually settling on Vashon, a ferry-served island between Seattle and Tacoma. I raised my three children minutes from the beach and the lighthouse, bracketed by fir and ferns, with Mt. Rainier our constant companion. This sense of place and family is important to me. Like the Himalayan blackberry, the English ivy and the Scotch broom, I am not a native––but this is where I put down my roots and I’m here to stay.

For more than 25 years, Steve has lived on and managed a 10-acre Vashon property overlooking Puget Sound, working with the resident owner to fulfill her vision for the multiple gardens. He supervises the care and feeding of the ever-changing horticultural beasts and mechanical gremlins that are always popping up.

While spending his days creatively building gardens and landscapes, Steve also concentrates on his music––writing and playing. He has recorded with outstanding musicians and won awards for his songwriting. A warm, talented performer, he’s widely acknowledged as an exceptionally creative musician-songwriter. Over the years he developed the strong voice and powerful presence for which he’s now well known.

Steve consistently works on new material, performs, records, jams and rehearses, produces music events and supports other musicians. He plays many types of music––folk, bluegrass, country (and Western), rock and roll, blues and jazz standards. He is a mainstay in a community that joyfully integrates the arts.

“Steve is amazing. He is a world-class songwriter and musician, so if he had an ego, it would be well deserved. He doesn't though. He is as happy to play in support as he is to play out in front, and whatever he gets involved with always sounds better with him than without. There are no half measures with Steve, whether he is helping with the apple crush, wrestling with our young son, or making many of the Island musicians sound the best they can be.”