I enjoy traditional ballads and tales. The nineteenth-century legends and folksongs I perform enliven my own lineages from Ireland and England through the Maritime Provinces to New England, and along the old National Road to the Ohio River Valley. Reflecting family heritage, I’m apt to recall lumberjacks, boatmen, railroaders, miners, and farmers.

Devoted to American Romanticism as I am, I’m likely to sing the verses of lyrical poems. In this way I’ve interpreted poets ranging from Emily Dickinson to E. E. Cummings. I’ve also transformed the prose of authors such as Henry David Thoreau and Herman Melville into song for theatrical settings.

As a playwright I’ve produced beggar’s operas, composing ballads in the musical styles of the nineteenth century to tell the multiracial history of Martha’s Vineyard and Cape Cod. Several songs from these shows have escaped the script to be recorded by other performers; they are included in the website section on plays.

I’m an original songwriter as well, telling stories of my own life and times. Youthful treatments of nature, friendship, and community were in hopes of leading a humble and harmless life. My songwriting since then has been about how to sustain these lighthearted quests for wisdom into middle age and beyond.