- Grew up on the Monkees,
thinking they were a real group.
- Played rock guitar throughout
High School -- crudely, and too loud.
- Sang in Madrigals and Barbershop
Quartet ("blends well", said
teacher).
- Later studied classical guitar
("doesn't practice"), then jazz
guitar ("unable to play fast").
- Fooled around with lutes,
mandolins, and whatnot, against teacher's
recommendations.
- Began acquiring stringed
instruments of every size and description.
- Composed and recorded original
instrumental music long before it became
fashionable.
- Took up the pedal harp
and freelanced for awhile, including stint as
L.A.'s first street harpist.
- Played guitar in comedy Oldies
band, The Pretensions -- until the
members became too pathetically old themselves.
- 1991 - 1995: Completed life's work
of playing every instrument in the collection (~100 at the
time).
- 1996-2000: Promoting "A Christmas
Collection." Figuring out how to play some of these
instruments live. Becoming enough of a computer nerd to
maintain this web site.
- 2000-?: Working on next "secret
project." Packaged some of my original tunes for my patient
fans.
- 2002-indefinite: Created a whole new web site
devoted to the harp guitars and other instruments of
turn-of-the-century builder Chris Knutsen.
- 2003 and on: Continue research, writing and
exploration into all sorts of wonderful, forgotten instruments....
- 2004-indefinite: Created
Harpguitars.net, the largest, most complete Internet resource on a
single musical topic that I am aware of.
- 2006: Opened Harp Guitar Music, record label
and the world's first all-harp guitar web store.
- 2009: With several cohorts, created The Harp
Guitar Foundation, of which I am currently president. We
guide and fund the annual Harp Guitar Gatherings and HG.net....me,
I never sleep.
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I'm basically your typical
part-time musician, though with unusually diverse musical
experience, and a rather passionate interest in stringed
instruments of every description. I originally labeled myself a collector,
recording artist, and "armchair musicologist" -- meaning that, without leaving my house much,
I managed to appear a "world-renowned expert" on the entire realm of stringed
instruments.
Since my "humorous essays"
written about the instruments for my Christmas Collection booklets,
I've had to present my subsequent, not-insubstantial research a bit
more seriously. And I am quite the geek.
I still divide my time between
the arts (music career) and sciences (aerospace workaday world), and in the past have worked as a
free-lance harpist, zookeeper, animation art dealer, and rock
& roll comedian.
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