“I think the easiest way to describe my medium is eclectic. I like creating in every way that comes to me and every way that I can, whether it’s through singing or playing trombone traditionally or whether it’s through creating new sounds with my trombone. In Tumbleweed Jumpers, I’m playing five or six different instruments, just out of necessity and the way that we write.
We play about 12 different genres of music. I like to keep things varied and keep things interesting in that way. I don’t like standing still.
I thoroughly believe that in this awesome microcosm of creativity we have here in Goshen, we work together a lot. That has spawned a lot of different projects that I might not have necessarily thought I was going to get into. I’m playing instruments in places and in ways I wouldn’t have thought possible.
I teach fifth- and sixth-grade music at Concord Intermediate School. It’s a great school. I really enjoy teaching. It’s kind of fun to be back at my alma mater. It’s definitely also interesting – different students from different backgrounds. You get a wide variety of students every day.
Tumbleweed Jumpers was a band formed out of necessity, really. I needed to propose to my now wife, and so we made a band up and played in Art Alley on a First Friday. That was the way I got to play ‘our song’ and I was able to propose to her. Then we decided to play for the wedding, and we had so much fun doing that we decided to actually form what became the Tumbleweed Jumpers.
We were able to perform at Goshen Brewing Company this fall for a socially distanced concert event with three bands that are all close friends of ours and all Goshen superstars in their own right. Being able to be a part of that…we were just floored that we got to do it. Partnering with GBCo. in the past, too, the beer that we’ve done with them and everything we’ve gotten to do – it just keeps coming back to the community here and how we work together. That’s the formative experience in this community.
Yeah, it would be fun to go play music in a big city, but you would be in that rat race. Here, you get to be supported and lifted up. You get to go to the pub and see people who come to your shows and hang out with them and talk to them on a one-on-one basis. I think that’s pretty cool. We’re lucky to have what we have.”
