When I was in middle school, I took piano lessons but could never seem to play like Jerry Lee Lewis or my dad who played by ear so I left it behind. In high school I wanted to play in a band so I taught myself guitar and then drums. As a drummer I was much happier choosing who I wanted to play with since drummers were in high demand and my friends all played guitar better than me. After college, music was something I doodled with off and on until I joined the Army in 2003. I played Christmas songs for some of my unit's Soldiers in Missouri, Arizona, Germany, Kuwait, Iraq & Afghanistan or whenever I could bring my guitar out with me for training exercises.

 

In 2009, a herniated disc was removed from my lower neck and I woke up with my left vocal cord paralyzed. I worked really hard over the next year to get my voice back, and as a result I developed better tone and became much more comfortable singing. In 2012, I deployed to Afghanistan, played Christmas songs and performed in concerts on base whenever the opportunity arose which gave everyone a few moments of reprieve from the stress of a deployment away from home and family. Playing in the Catholic choir I made some lifelong friends and returned to the states unemployed and divorced not knowing what life had in store for me next. Needless to say it was a difficult adjustment; and my story is no different than many of our nation's Veterans who come home to find the world very different from when they left. 

 

Over the next couple of years my kids and music became my solace. I  started playing open mic nights around my hometown of Houston and made more friends and connected in ways that helped me heal from all those life changing events. Sometimes my kids joined me on stage to sing a few Beatles tunes or shake the tambourine. I felt like I was belonging again to what life called me for.