Having classical musicians as parents ensured that I would get an early start in music. My mother, a piano teacher, starting me on the keys at age four. At eight I started singing professionally as a chorister in the choir of the Washington National Cathedral. By ten I switched to classical guitar, which I studied with Aaron Shearer until I graduated from high school. But all along my real love was folk and rock music, and I started putting bands together by age 12. At 18 I took a perilous dive into performing professionally with Claude Jones, a band I founded in the summer of 1968. It was perilous because leaving college put me at risk of being drafted and sent to fight an insane and unjust war in Viet Nam.
Over the years I have had the good fortune to share the stage, and ofter to perform with some of the icons of folk and rock music, including the late Vic Briggs of the Animals, Jon Fishman of Phish, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, and many more. These days, however, my focus is on solo performance, accompanying myself on guitar with a repertoire that ranges from early and traditional folk tunes like Leadbelly’s “John Hardy”, rock classics like the Beatles and Stones, and my own originals. “Higher Ground”, my most recent CD, was recorded at Frog Hollow Studio in 2023. It is a collection of famous hymns by my great-grandfather, Johnson Oatman, Jr., that I edited and set to my own original music. In November 2025 I received a grant from the Maine Arts Commission to help underwrite a 2026 production of my rock opera “One Way Trip to Mars”, written in collaboration with Johannah Harkness. For samples of my music please click here.