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Gender: Male

Location: okc area

Orientation: Straight

About Me: The Across the Line band began in 1997 as a group of songwriters getting together to record an album of their songs. The general idea was to split the costs of recording among several writers. Mark "Tyler" Brooks got me involved by getting me to agree to supply guitar work. Through the practice sessions, we began to tighten up the songs and after the addition of drummer Don "Donny J" Johnson and with myself being pushed to the front began to kick around the idea of forming Across The Line. We entered a battle of the bands at a local dance bar, and believe it or not won. At that point, we began playing the local bar every other weekend. from there the band blossomed. We were playing every weekend somewhere in the Oklahoma City Area. There were of course many roster changes as the band matured, eventually being reduced to a 4 piece band. Mark Tyler took up the roll of booking, and we played out consistently until September 2002 when my daughter was born. I then semi-retired to playing weddings and private parties. In May 2007, one of our old bass players, Vern Brown, opened a restaurant in Harrah, Oklahoma. We began playing on a weekly basis there, as a 3 piece. It was primarily an acoustic show, with an open invite to the patrons to join us on stage. As the sound matured, it took on a very original tone by combining the influence of artists from every era of blues, country, rock, and i can't forget the Texas music scene. The set lists combine music from Hank Williams to Matchbox twenty, played our way. A very good friend of mine named Joey Steele, who handles booking for Travis Richmond out of the Dallas/Ft. Worth area, labeled the sound as "outlaw country". Through the years of playing, we released our first single "Crossing The Line" in 2000, and held a split CD release party. Being from Edmond, Oklahoma we wanted to release there, but also due to booking held a party in N. Oklahoma City and invited a local on-air radio personality to emcee the event. The “B-side” Oklahoma Angel followed up Crossing The Line. The response was fantastic. We have played a variety of venues, but we always leaned towards the family oriented events. We played the Harrahfest (Harrah, Oklahoma's founder's day celebration) in 1999 and headlined the event in 2000. We also played the Oklahoma State Fair several dates in 1999, 2000 and 2001. The Edmond (Oklahoma) Arts Festival welcomed us in 2001 as well.

Music: Everything from Hank Williams to Matchbox twenty

Heroes: All the artists who paved the way for those of us who don't sound like everyone else