Mark Pyles/Pajamas Music

Clients can expect a 24-hour confirmation prior to day of performance. They can expect me to arrive at least 30 minutes early with everything I need to set up and go. They can expect an on time start. When I leave, they can expect everything back exactly the way it was when I arrived.

Audiences can expect me to be proficient, polished and professional. They can expect to hear familiar songs performed authentically or otherwise arranged in creative and interesting new ways.

I am a Louisville native from the South End, having grown up in Cloverleaf and graduated from Doss High (Class of ’79). My Dad held graduate degrees from SBTS in Sacred Music and from U of L in Education, so I grew up with Bach, Brahms and Buryl Red. I took oboe and piano lessons as a kid, along the way picking up drums, guitar and electric bass, and playing in various bands and ensembles, both organized and disorganized.

In the Spring of 2021, I started playing in retirement settings as a way to reconnect with people, for personal fulfillment and to supplement my own modest retirement. Since then, I have built up a sizable base of clients in different locations and settings around town (independent and assisted living, rehab, memory care, etc). I’m also still frequently asked to play at local outdoor markets and some casual dining places, and I am so happy to be returning this Spring to the Douglass Loop Farmers Market for my 5th year in a row, as it, along with the people who frequent it, has always been very near and dear to me.

The breadth and depth of my “repertoire” aligns itself more closely with a coffee shop crowd as opposed to a biker bar, and I probably won’t be covering KC and the Sunshine Band or Wild Cherry in this lifetime, but that’s just fine. I do what I do and folks of a certain age and families seem to enjoy the kind of music I am able to provide.

And along the way, a couple of things have become clear to me, especially over the last few years, and they are as follows:

1) I believe we are put here on the earth and in this life to connect with one other and to perhaps become better acquainted with our own selves in the process, and;

2) Music has a unique and extraordinary way of creating and facilitating those personal connections in a manner very few other endeavors can. There is nothing comparable to, or more personally rewarding than watching an elder, perhaps one deep in the debilitating process of Alzheimers or dementia, ‘awaken’ and start to nod their head, tap their feet and perhaps even sing along to the I, IV, V 7th chords of a classic rock ‘n’ roll Elvis or Johnny Cash tune!

Thanks for reading about me and please consider hiring me for your next event!

I am totally turn key. All I need is a wall socket or other source of power. I provide everything else that I need.