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Rod
has been performing for thirty years and teaching for twenty-five years on
a total of six instruments: keyboard, guitar, banjo, mandolin, bass, and
fiddle. His styles include classical, pop, new age, bluegrass,
flamenco, and celtic. Over the years he has worked with artists like
Martha Munizzi and Grammy winner Bruce Carroll and performed for coffee
houses, restaurants, churches, hotels, civic centers, performance halls,
weddings, private parties, corporate functions, and outdoor
festivals. As the founder and director of the Tulsa Guitar Society
he has done promotional work for artists like Edgar
Cruz, Tommy
Emmanuel,
and Ronald Radford.
Raised
in Wichita Falls, Texas, Rod was exposed to a variety of musical styles
from the age of eight when he began four years of classical piano lessons
while also singing traditional sacred music in the junior choir of the
Baptist church and listening to the pop music his sister played from her voluminous
record collection. At age fourteen he began playing the guitar where
his interest in pop music artists like Jim Croce, James Taylor, and Gordon
Lightfoot led him to develop his fingerstyle technique. When he was
seventeen he began playing the banjo and developed an appreciation for
folk music and bluegrass by listening to Arlo Guthrie, Flatt & Scruggs,
Eric Weisberg, and Roy Clark. At eighteen he began studying
classical guitar at Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls. In his twenties
his love for folk and bluegrass led him to learn
the mandolin, bass, and fiddle as well.
Later he became
interested in new age artists like William Ackerman, Alex De Grassi, and
Michael Hedges while also discovering jazz artists Jean-Luc Ponty,
Stephane Grappelli, and Martin Taylor. In more recent years he has returned to his classical roots on guitar while adding several flamenco pieces into his
repertoire after listening to guitarists such as Juan Martin and Paco de
Lucia.
After
living in Nashville for a couple of years Rod vowed to remain independent
with his future musical endeavors. He currently lives in Tulsa,
Oklahoma where he plays, records, teaches, and promotes the music that he
loves as director of the Tulsa Guitar Society and an artist with the
Instrumental Artists Consortium.
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