Slow Leak Bluegrass Band

I was born and raised in the small Missouri town of Brimson. My lovely wife and I have been married for 32 years, and we have two fantastic daughters, all of whom are very supportive of the time I spend playing music.

The first instrument I played was an acoustic guitar that my older brother let me borrow. I was fascinated by the finger style of my hero, Chet Atkins, and practiced for hours. As time went on I played lead guitar with several country bands. Then in 1981 I went to a bluegrass festival. From that time on, I wanted to play bluegrass. I joined a Southern gospel group, His Song, as an acoustic guitar and lead electric guitar player in the late 80’s and was able to convince them to add the banjo and a touch of Bluegrass at times. Gospel music continues to be a very important part of my life.

I had just about given up on being in a bluegrass band when I ran into Jason “Slade” Spillman Slade and Stoney Bowers at the Free State Festival in Lawrence, KS in February of 2002. They suggested that we get together and jam after one of the shows and that was the start of many jam sessions that eventually led to forming the group called Sloe Leak.

We ended up with Slade on guitar, Stoney on mandolin and guitar, Travis on lead vocals and guitar, yours truly on banjo, and Bob on bass. Ironically, as a retired High School Mathematics teacher of 32 years, all of the above mentioned characters are former students. Sometimes I think that God has played a practical joke on me and is up there laughing. I wouldn’t trade playing with the boys for anything, except maybe an original pre-war 1931 Gibson Mastertone banjo.