I grew up in Sautee Nacoochee Georgia and Eureka Springs Arkansas. My father was a minister and my mother taught piano and played organ in the church so I grew up singing in the church choir and playing piano and guitar. After I moved to San Francisco, I played in bands like Frightwig, Pleasant Day, Trial, Faith No More (guest guitarist), Virginia Dare, Cloiter etc.... I started Tarnation in 1991. First I played solo under Tarnation for the first few years with friends sitting in with me sometimes.
In 1994 Nuf Sed put out the first Tarnation record "I'll Give You Something to Cry About". 4AD picked up the record and put additional songs on it and called it "Gentle Creatures" released in 1995. 4AD and Reprise put out my next record in 1997 called "Mirador". Then I dropped the Tarnation name for a while and put out 3 records on Birdman Records under my name - "Indoor Universe", "A Place Where I Know" and "Leave The Sad Things Behind". In March 2007, I put out a new record on Birdman Records called "Now It's Time".