It all started with a book, my last non-fiction to date. As I traveled around the country, writing about NASCAR, I started doing interviews with favorite musicians on the side.

Robert Earl Keen in Newberry, S.C.; Tom Russell in Berkeley, Calif.; Pat Green in New Braunfels, Texas; James McMurtry, and Slaid Cleaves in Austin, Texas; Jack Ingram in Fort Worth; Brad Paisley in Las Vegas; Stoney Larue in Dallas; etc., etc. The result was True to the Roots: Americana Music Revealed.

The experience inspired me, and, to make a long story short, I taught myself to play basic guitar and started writing songs, which, in turn, led to my first novel, The Audacity of Dope, which was about a pot-smoking songwriter who got himself tied up in a political conspiracy.

Still on the NASCAR beat, I started playing little gigs near tracks in Virginia, Richmond, Michigan, and Charlotte, not to mention the occasional visit to places around town here in Clinton.

Mainly now I just play with friends, whether that’s an open mic in Columbia or the parking lot of Bailey Memorial Stadium before and after Presbyterian College football games. Most of my singing is here in the living room.

I miss it. I’ll play your Christmas party in a heartbeat, but I don’t travel much anymore. My songwriting has slowed to a crawl, too, mainly because my fiction writing has accelerated.

 

 

 

 

Most of my books — non-fiction on NASCAR and music, collections that include my contributions, seven novels, and one short-story collection — are available here.