CURRENT MISSION

I am an avid traveller, both for my musical career and for vacation. I am interested in developing and sharing my talents and gifts with those that I meet and learning from others as much as I can.

ABOUT ME

I am a kind, humble, and considerate person. I am intelligent and a good friend, and I am respectful to both children and adults. I am a talented singer and songwriter, and I am good with kids. I am dependable and a good listener. I am a spiritual and religious person, but I am respectful and tolerant of other faiths and other lifestyles regardless of whether or not I agree with them. I am social and like being out and about at night, especially attending music/arts events. I go out to bars, but I am not a heavy drinker, and I prefer not to be around places with lots of cigarette smoke.

PHILOSOPHY

Don't dedicate your life to anything that doesn't have a soul.

Don't ever be afraid of being wrong or of asking questions.

Don't let other people convince you of what you can and can't do.

Warum ich bei Couchsurfing bin

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I use couch surfing to find places to stay and meet people on my trips to play music at conferences and house concerts. I also host people at my house in Nashville, TN from time to time.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I have enjoyed my couch surfing experience in the brief bit of time that I've been doing it. It is a much more fun and fulfilling way to travel than staying in hotels, and much better on a traveling musicians budget.

Interessen

I am an independently managed and produced singer/songwriter, and I have been a music teacher for 7th and 8th graders and a substitute teacher for all grade levels K-12 and subjects. I really enjoy reading, watching, or hearing interesting stories and learning through a variety of experiences. I like independent films and well-written TV shows, but I try to read more (magazines and classic literature) than watch. I enjoy learning and practicing on musical instruments that I know (guitar, voice, piano); those that I kind of know (banjo, dobro, mandolin, harmonica); and those that I have yet to learn.

I follow college basketball as a fan and alumnus of The University of North Carolina, and I grew up going to games with my family.

I have been privileged to be involved in education and enjoy thinking and talking about ways to make it better. I also enjoy reading about and discussing religion/philosophy and psychology - probably because I am just naturally fascinated by people and everyone has an interesting and diverse background when it comes to their religion and the way they view the world.

• arts
• literature
• singing
• concerts
• festivals
• education
• movies
• reading
• tv
• traveling
• socializing
• music
• guitar
• piano
• surfing
• sports
• basketball
• soccer
• teaching
• psychology
• religion

Musik, Filme und Bücher

I grew up listening to James Taylor, and I go to a lot of folk and Americana music festivals both as a fan and as a performer. Some of my favorite artists that you may have heard of are Gillian Welch, Jason Isbell, and Chris Stapleton. I have a lot of favorite friends who play music too whom you probably don't know but should.

My favorite movie is "Almost Famous," and I'm a big fan of Netflix TV shows "Bloodline" and "Master of None."

I like reading classic books and also literary/news magazines like The Atlantic and The New Yorker. Favorite books have been Anna Karenina, A Tale of Two Cities, Mere Christianity, and The Great Divorce, to name a few.

Eine tolle Erfahrung, die ich gemacht habe

In the past few years I have had the privilege of becoming an uncle twice, so I could fill pages with awestruck moments about my sister's two little girls. But most immediate to my mind is getting to go with them and the family to Disney World twice. The first time was 2011, just after Thanksgiving. I watched the youngest (and shyest) take in "It's a Small World" with wide eyes as she sat on my lap. I also have enjoyed seeing her develop and start talking more when I visit and get to spend some time with her. My oldest niece is very precocious and talks enough for the two of them most of the time, so it is good to see the youngest advancing more this year.

The other amazing experience I had recently was a trip to the Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, NY last Labor Day weekend for Bobby McFerrin's Circlesongs workshop. The way those few days started out, with the delays and stresses of Hurricane Irene, compared to the way they ended up with around 150 of us singing together with smiling faces was well worth the admission and travel costs, and it is an experience I will carry with me for the rest of my life. Meeting Bobby McFerrin certainly didn't take away from the experience either :)

I should add a couple things to this list:
One is that I just got back from a trip to the Telluride Bluegrass Festival, where I got to play in the Telluride Troubadour Contest as one of 10 finalists out of about 500 entries. It was such a beautiful place and a real treat to play there - I hope to go back next year.

Before that, I took a trip to Prague with a missions group from my church, and we helped lead classes and activities for the children of the Romani people out there. It was sad to see how marginalized they are as an ethnic group, but encouraging to see how loving and personable the children were and how much their parents appreciated the involvement of others. I came back from Prague and was greeted by my sister, nieces, Mom, and Dad who had come to visit. It was the first time my youngest niece had been to visit me in Nashville, and they had more fun playing with the whoopie cushions they got from Dave & Buster's as they did with the puppets I brought them from Prague! Quite a treat to hear a 3- and 5-year-old laughing so hard. :)

2016 Update:
I just bought a new house and moved from Spring Hill to Nashville in May. I have two housemates and a finished basement for Couchsurfing and Airbnb.

I am taking a break from teaching this year and focus on being a musician, actor, writer, and landlord.

I also have an awesome dog named Bonnie. She is part lab and part Australian Shepherd. She loves people and attention and she has a lot of energy!

Lehren, lernen, teilen

Try to leave someone's place and life better than you found it.

Länder, die ich besucht habe

Austria, Belgium, Canada, Germany, Mexico, Netherlands, United Kingdom, United States

Länder, in denen ich gelebt habe

United States