About Paul

An Oklahoma-born artist, Paul now lives on the Front Range in Colorado. He writes songs that tell stories. Whether you call it Folk, Americana, Red Dirt, or something else, you’ll hear melodies and lyrics that touch you, and encourage you to embrace and examine life from a variety of vantage points.

He’s moved 27 times, living in the Southwest, the Mountain-West, the Great Lakes Region, and on the East Coast. He’s been broke, a drunk, forlorn, and flunked out. Paul’s also taught at universities, written two books, worked for big corporations, started several successful businesses, enjoyed a happy marriage for over 40 years, had a beautiful daughter, and became a Ph.D. psychologist along the way. But it’s always been the music, the songwriting that sits at the center of his journey. As he often says, “I can’t help myself, I need to write songs, and I’ve got to play them, or I think I’d die…or at least be pretty cranky.”

 A few years back, Paul was surprised when he was diagnosed with CLL, a form of leukemia. Fortunately, because of great doctors and some new breakthrough drugs, he is now in full remission. But the cancer diagnosis, as it does for so many, caused him to consider the things that matter most. Songwriting moved from a passion to an obsession. “I love songwriting more than just about anything. But trying to tell truth, not giving up on a line until it feels just right, never settling, never saying ‘okay it’s good enough,’ is hard work. It’s sweat and frustration and dead-ends sometimes. But when you finish one, and you can smile and say, that’s it, that’s the song that was trying to get out, it’s pretty special.”

Paul released his first record, Travel Inn in 2020 about two months before the Covid shutdown. Because of his CLL diagnosis, his doctors did not permit him to go out to play until late 2023. “I’m so excited to be back in the saddle again. I’m having a great time playing out and connecting with audiences. Songs are meant to shared and it’s incredibly fulfilling to see how people relate to what I’ve written.” Paul is now scheduling the recording and release of a new record with the working title Whispers and Shadows for later this year. Paul says that he “hopes that anyone and everyone will find something on this record that matters to them, something to enjoy and something to take with them.”

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