CuppaLife Stories

I have been a fan of rock and roll and popular music for as long as I can remember. My brother Steve bought records almost every week when he was in junior high and high school. Every Tuesday, he would bring home as many of the latest releases as he could afford. And then, every day, we’d play these precious discs on the record player over and over and over again while we waited for our parents to come home from work.

All those records led to me getting my first guitar for my thirteenth birthday. It was a gift from my sister Connie, who was very much into folk music at the time. And, since she already had her own guitar, she taught me to play the guitar by teaching me Bob Dylan, Peter Paul and Mary, and Kingston Trio tunes. However, it didn’t take long for me to graduate from folk songs to figuring out songs off the radio. And, from there, it took even less time for me to start writing my own songs, nothing fancy, nothing great, just cheap imitations of what I liked to listen to.

By the time I graduated from high school, I was musically obsessed and I wanted to learn about “real music.” Not just rock and roll, but classical music, with orchestras, structure, modulations, transitions, counterpoint and all the technical stuff that comes with the serious study of music.

And even though I spent three years at Brigham Young University learning the formal, classical elements of music, I could never shake my basic rock and roll roots. The resulting writing style has been something all my own, something I hope is a pleasing mix of both musical worlds: great rhythms with singable/memorable melodies with often lush/complex harmonies.

It is hard for me to talk about my music without acknowledging the uncredited contributions of my wife, Terry. One of her greatest talents is that she is an absolutely atrocious liar! So, her feedback, opinions, and input over the years have been a vital part of my creative process. I have always craved her approval. And although the expediencies of raising a family often kept her from remembering many of my songs, she has always been my first and most important sounding board. Plus, she is the inspiration behind many of the stories told in the lyrics. After fifty-plus years of marriage, I am still totally crazy about her.

And one final digression: I also love Broadway—and not just as a musical style, but I love how musicals do more than set sonnets and poetry to music. Their songs tell mini stories, develop characters, and talk about aspects of life beyond falling in and out of love. Similar traits show up in the lyrics that I write. Many of my songs have very complex, very real backstories and some of them are literary short stories with a beginning, middle and end, that just happens to be set to music.

The purpose of providing all of this background information is so you, the listener, can begin to understand why I write what I write. As the Danny Rose Collection title song says, “I have something that I need to say” musically as well as lyrically.

Hopefully, you will enjoy the results.