Singer/Songwriter Music

Southern gospel quartet and a cappella church music were some of my first sounds. These days my tastes are much wider. But the music I write and record is rooted in those wonderful traditions. Check out a few original songs on Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple music and  Duane on SoundCloud,

My earliest memories include sitting on a church pew beside my dad as he sang tenor on  hymns in four part harmony with a few dozen other worshipers. As the youngest of six kids, all my brothers and sisters loved music and could sing well. Several played guitar. I could sing harmony by ear but I was in the first grade. In my family, you just couldn’t help it.

I picked up a family acoustic guitar when I was 10 or 11 and learned to play play familiar songs from a Doc Watson songbook with lyrics and chords. I think my first song was “Red River Valley;” it’s still a favorite.

Singing was a daily routine in school, often with basic music lessons on southern harmony, shaped note music.

Uncles, aunt’s and cousins were also musical, especially on my mom’s side. Reunions with those cousins often included a few hours of singing familiar hymns.

Radios and songs without Christian themes were forbidden. But I’d sneak an AM/FM transistor radio with an earplug to bed and listen to WLS in Chicago, the Grand Old Opry on WSM and WBBQ in Augusta Georgia. Tunes from Hank Williams, George Jones, Patsy Cline and later Creedence Clearwater Revival, the Beatles and Doobie Brothers filled my life.

These days I listen almost exclusively to Classical and Jazz but nearly all the music I write is in the folk/rock/country style of my childhood.