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| Skip
was born in south Louisiana, along Bayou LaFourche, deep in Cajun country.
His roots are here among the cypress trees and swamps. He was raised
on shrimp gumbo, boiled crawfish, and French music, like all good Cajuns
are. Skip had formal keyboard training as a youngster and learned
to play the Hammond organ at the age of seven. It wasn't long before
he was playing keyboards in local bands and at the age of fifteen, developed
an interest in learning to play the guitar. Skip became interested
in Folk music and played in a band called The New Horizons, which was a
well know band in south Louisiana in the Folk music days.
After high school ( in Raceland, Louisiana ) and a stint in the Navy / Marines as a medical corpsman in Southeast Asia, Skip attended the New Orleans campus of Louisiana State University and studied Dental Arts. His father was a dentist in Raceland and Skip eventually ended up doing his dad's crown & bridge work. It was around this time that skip moved to the Atlanta area and began playing music at places like Alexander's Eagle and The Aspen. Skip also had a small photography business going on at the same time. In 1983, while remodeling his home, Skip accidentally and tragically lost all but one of the fingers on his left hand, including his thumb. He had numerous surgeries to try to restore some basic function to his hand, including the "rearranging" of some of his fingers to give him an opposable thumb. It was a devastating injury that left Skip seemingly unable to play music any longer and also hampered his technical dental skills. Understandably, it was not an easy time for him. At this point Skip decided to get on with his life and began training in what has become his second passion, aviation. He learned to fly and then went to school to learn how to be an aircraft mechanic. He bought and restored a single engine Piper Cherokee and eventually obtained a twin engine Aztec that he virtually rebuilt from scratch. He used to make frequent trips back to Louisiana to visit his family and friends. Skip has since sold the plane, but still works as a certified aircraft mechanic and an IA inspector today. Even though he was now happy with his new career and hobby, music was never far from his mind. He took his old twelve string Martin guitar to have it modified, so that he could start to learn how to play it again - left handed! He really just wanted to learn how to play a few songs so he could get together with all of his old friends and reminisce about the good ol' days. He struggled for a long while and had a hard time just doing simple things on guitar. He had trouble just holding the guitar pick, and for a while, super glued it to his fingers. That's how badly he wanted to play. After several years of frustration, Skip finally made a breakthrough. After constant practice and the hope that he would some day be able to play again, Skip regained enough dexterity in his hand and also began to learn how to play chords with his right hand. Skip then purchased an electronic keyboard with the ambition of playing professionally once again. The Ensoniq keyboard allows Skip to "pre-record" his own background music & sounds. Every note you hear while Skip is on stage was played and programmed by Skip himself. Over the last few years, Skip has once again regained his ability to play both the guitar and the keyboard and is entertaining folks better than ever. Skip's comeback from adversity has been amazing. If you have never heard Skip play before, you will definitely be in for a treat. He draws from a vast repertoire of songs, but his strong point is making sure his fans have an enjoyable evening. So come "pass a good time" with Skip at one of his shows - and bring all your friends! I'm sure you will all become regulars! |