I've done this all backwards by most measures...........

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Typically, a guy or girl gets a guitar at a young age and then learns or writes some songs.  After performing alone for a while they join up with another player and eventually start or join a full band to back them up.  Nope.  I never got that memo when I was young.

 

I've been playing out in rock bands without pause since I was sixteen.  The drinking age was eighteen at that time but no one cared so much about that then, as they do now.  We were under-age and playing in bars every weekend.  A few years later we created a "parallel" show of material with which we made a ton of money playing weddings through the 80's and mid-90's.  We played A LOT.  Often a late night Friday's (clubs ran their bands 10pm to 2am in those days), followed by a wedding on Saturday afternoon before the next 10-2 bar gig on the same Saturday night.  The rock gig's never slowed even as the scourge DJ's rose up and took over every wedding celebration in America.

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As the wedding work slowed I started a side-project acoustic duo with one of my band-mates for a few years in the mid 90's.  Through that project  I developed a taste for the acoustic simplification of perennial rock classics.  The rock band gig's continued without pause to this day but as the schedule slowed temporarily in 2009 I started a new acoustic duo on the side (WoodStone) and we've been playing constantly ever since.  In 2013 I rehearsed a solo acoustic show and began to perform at wineries, bars, brew pubs and restaurants.  This project has officially brought my "reverse journey" from bands to duo's to solo performance full circle.  At this time all three projects (band, duo, solo) are simultaneously active and each holds a special interests for me, but I particularly enjoy the aspect of distilling a BIG song into its essence through a solo acoustic arrangement.