I was born and raised in Toledo, Ohio. Larry says Ohio is a four letter word. What an astute fellow.
I went to college in Cincinnati, Ohio at the University of Cincinnati for Industrial Design. I love designing. Lots of room for artistic expression. I hate the capitalistic business world, it's lack of imagination and it's exclusive, narrow minded focus on money. Both worlds aspire to polar opposites.
Anyway, due to a snafu in graduation (the student counselor errantly recorded what classes I'd completed) I had to back for a 3 hour business elective. During that time I picked up the guitar and started learning to play.
It was also in college that I started listening to the Grateful Dead and going to shows. Right around 1985. A whole new world was opened up to me. Yeah sure there were people in my high school who listened to the Dead but the culture didn't hit me the way it did in college. Perhaps it was the new environment of college, wanting to expand horizons or just simply being away from home.
After college started working for Icon Exhibits in Ft. Wayne, IN. In that first year I met Greg Lass at an ultimate frisbee practice. We started playing music together. Primarily Grateful Dead. We soon formed Might As Well. Due to frustrations with the corporate world I decided to try something different for a while and went to Alaska to work on a salmon fishing boat. I cooked and helped bring in the net on the back deck Great job and experience. Made a decent amount of money. Enough to buy my P.A. system I let Might As Well use. Went back for two seasons. Much musical inspiration. A few years after I retired from corporate life.
Might As Well in it's growth towards becoming an original band moved away from playing Grateful Dead covers. We still play them occasionally but not as much as I'd like to. Murrary Moorthy (bass player for Might As Well) and I decided to start playing acoustic duo gigs together and doing primarily Grateful Dead covers to fill that void. Janelle Martin (flute player for the band and my wife) joined soon after as did Dan Halferty(percussion), Larry McFadden(percussion) and Michael Moore (mandolin). After one gig at Midnight Brew Janelle came up with the name of the band Grateful Groove. I liked it so much I immediately called everyone on the cell phone and it was unanimous. Murrary soon left Grateful Groove as it seemed the group was moving in a direction that would require more time than he had to give and decided to spend that time with his family. A noble thing to do. Soon after forming Grateful Groove Michael Moore started Way Out North.
Dan suggested Aren Weinbrenner try out for bass and joined in January of 2002. Michael Moore soon left Grateful Groove and Way Out North due to family pressures as well. We needed to find another vocalist and stringed instrument. Phil Foster was doing sound for GG so we asked him to join as percussionist and vocalist. Phil fit in perfectly but we still needed an additional instrument to fill out the instrumental portion of the sound. Larry McFadden suggested inviting Dave Karthol to sit in as his schedule would allow as his passion for the music of the Grateful Dead matched ours and it would also satisfy the need for a fuller stringed sound. Yet another perfect match. Dave sits in as guest musician as often as he can.
The only part of my life that isn't directly illuminated through the timeline of Grateful Groove is my marriage to Janelle and what I'm currently doing. Janelle and I got married on September 29, 2001. The greatest thing that's happened to me along with finding music. They've both rescued me from dark times. Besides being a husband I currently float between playing music in three bands, doing freelance design, web site design, being a promoter and working at the Three Rivers Food Co-op.
Designed by Jeff Anderson