My solo performances include vocals with acoustic guitar and piano accompaniment. I specialize in "lite" music, which ranges from fun, lively tunes to soft ballads. My song selections include "oldies" (60's and 70's), lite rock, and modern country, along with a selection of more current tunes. I am always receptive to special requests. I enjoy having fun with the audiences, and I always try to entertain in a relaxing, laid back atmosphere.

In 2009, I had the privilege of joining Jonah's Stage Pass Now project. We reenacted Michael Stanley's breakout album Stage Pass on which Jonah performed and wrote several of the songs. Several of Jonah's other popular tunes were included in the shows. This band included Jonah (guitar/vocals), Donny Thompson (guitar/vocals), Rik Williger (keyboards/vocals), Bill March (bass/vocals), and myself (drums/vocals). We performed at several concert venues in the area, including Akron's Lock 3 festival, the Akron Civic Theater, Cleveland's Time Warner Amphitheater, and the Music Box Supper Club.

This same lineup has performed concerts featuring Breathless music, including the 40th anniversary of their first album in 2019. A few other players were added for these shows, most notably Breathless persussionist Rodney Psyka. Other musicians that have participated include Breathless guitarist Alan Greene and Michael Stanley Band guitarist Danny Powers.

For our live perfomances, we play songs comprised of Jonah's extensive repertoire that include tunes from The Michael Stanley Band, Breathless, and Jonah's various other projects.

This best description of this band is "fun and lively" - both for us as players and for our audiences. Our song list is comprised of everthing from oldies to modern pop to today's country. The selections are performed in acoustic style and capture the range of laid back ballads to lively dance numbers. Three part harmonies are featured throughout the shows. We also specialize in attempting all requests that we can possibly perform - and even some that we can't!

I teach drum set and snare drum from beginner to advanced levels. I provide beginner to intermediate instruction for the other instruments. I can refer students to specialized teachers for more advanced instruction on these other instruments. I teach primarilly at my studio, but arrangements can be made for home lessons or online instruction.

Online instruction material is available at the student portal. The portal includes instruction sheets, written music, and audio clips related to individual lessons. Each student has their own portal login that includes their private lesson material.

Over the years I have had multiple opportunities to perform on studio recordings. I have also been in bands that have been captured live on stage.

I played drums, percussion, and sang on most of the recordings, although I have been recorded playing other instruments as well. The locations of the sessions include both professional and home studios. Some of the recordings received radio airplay, some were once available in stores, some are still available online, and others remain personal projects.

I have been writing and recording songs since I was teenager. When home studios became economically feasible in the early 90s, I invested in equipment, invented the name "Vantastic Sudios", and began to record songs I had written over the years. I often played the instruments myself, although some of my friends and bandmates contributed to several of the recordings. I have provided recordings of some of the compositions that I think you might find interesting.

I also have some songs available at: Reverb Nation.

Several of my fellow musicians, friends, and even members of my family have recorded projects at "Vantastic Studios". I have included songs that were written by, or co-written with, other artists. I enjoy being the producer, arranger, and recording engineer for projects. Most of my personal compositions were recorded in my home studio.

The initial studio equipment included analog mixers, tape recorders, and outboard processors. Gradually the scheme moved to digital tape and then to hard disk recording. Today the configuration is a single iMac computer, an audio interface, and a selection of microphones. Home recording has come a long way!

"Vantastic Studios" is curently available for new projects. I specialize in recording live, or "real", drum tracks. Please visit my Contact section if you are interested.

One afternoon I saw an older neighborhood kid playing his drum set. That moment was so inspiring that I began playing toy drums along with almost every record that my parents owned. From then on Christmas presents included some type of musical instrument. In the eighth grade I received my biggest present, my first Ludwig drumset. Each Christmas afterward I would add pieces to my drumset or acquire other musical instruments.

As an adolescent, my quest to play in a band lead me to acquire and learn how play instruments other than piano and drums, namely guitar and bass. Musicians were scarce in the small town of New Martinsville, West Virginia, where I grew up. To play music, I found it easiest to teach friends how to play a simple drum beat while I played another instrument. However, my real love was the drums, and I eventually found friends that played other instruments. A string of jam sessions and garage bands followed. I was soon playing high school dances and parties, and even gigged at local clubs as a teenager.

After a few sub gigs and short stints with other bands in the area, namely Copperwine from Parkersburg and Suite 69 from Athens, Ohio, I was asked to to be the drummer in the band, Kooch. This band featured the popular vocalist Vicki Hanlon, along with her husband Dennis Hanlon on guitar, and Terry Manfredi on bass. These players were well established in the Parkersburg region. Eric Moore, the leader of the national act The Godz from Columbus, Ohio, had a personal connection to Dennis and Vicki and assumed a strong advisory role to Kooch. This band flourished during the "Glam Rock" era as our music and dress reflected the style. We played major clubs in the West Virginia and Ohio areas, and our performances included both popular copy tunes and original compositions.

After Kooch dissolved (my first experience with managerial disputes), I returned briefly to my home town and gigged with a couple of bands there, namely Hotwire and Stormer. It was fun reuniting with old buddies, and I have fond memories of pulling U-haul trailers through icy mountains to play the West Virginia rock clubs.

In early 1980, I was approached by former Hott guitarist/vocalist Rex Ackerman, who was starting a new project. A new band was soon formed and named Rampage. The members included Rex (guitar/vocals), Steve Etheridge (guitar/vocals), David Mauk (keyboards/vocals), Jeff Lyon (bass/vocals), and myself (drums/vocals). Rampage was a fairly hard edged rock band that also performed progressive rock selections. Rampage performed mostly copy tunes with a few added originals, and played numerous rock clubs in Northeast Ohio.

The Easy Street Band regularly played all of the major rock clubs in the Cleveland area, including a steady Thursday night gig at the popular Agora Ballroom. We also frequently toured the United States and Canada. We opened for many national acts throughout the country. The lineup for my first few years included Westside Steve Simmons (lead vocals), Russ Hagler (guitar/vocals), Bones Bonam (guitar/vocals), Bob Martin (bass guitar), Jim Madden (keyboards/vocals), Norman Tischler (tenor sax, alto sax, flute, trombone), and myself (drums/percussion/vocals). Trumpeter Jim Means often joined us for large shows. When Norman left the band, Ricky Bell (formerly of The Michael Stanley Band), and later session musician Mark Early filled the saxaphone chair.

The band recorded a self titled EP in 1982. The song "Love Tries" received regular airplay on Cleveland's top radio staion, WMMS. The EP reached as high as #25 on their chart. The selections "She Don't Love Me" and "Romaine" were also played on the air and featured guest members of the Michael Stanley band, Michael Stanley, and Kevin Raleigh, respectively. After the release of this record, we were invited to perform at the Coffee Break Concert, which was a popular live mid day radio brodacast.

In 2003 we reunited briefly and went back into the studio to record Back on Easy Street, an album that included many previously unrecorded songs that we played at our live shows. Most of the songs were written by vocalist and frontman Westside Steve Simmons, and the record was produced by Donny Thompson. Steve is still active with his solo act and you can catch up with him at his website www.westsidesteve.com.

The Easy Street Band is still performing reunion shows. Their offical web site is:
www.easystreetband.com

In 1985 I joined his band, Max Wheel and the Sheades, and spent one year playing all original compositions. I was joined by Easy Streeters Russ Hagler and Gary "Bones" Bonam along with guitarist Rick Thomas. The Sheades first Album, Request Line, received airplay on college radio stations. The song "Better on the Floor" was the single from the album and was played the most.

The musical style of the band combined 60's melodic pop with 80's energy. The live performances featured all original material that included rock numbers as well as ballads. The band opened for several national acts, including Black Oak Arkansas, Nazareth, Pat Travers, Robin Trower, and Steppenwolf.

Over the years Max continued to perform and record with several different lineups. Although Max is no longer with us, his recordings continue to be posted by his loyal fans.

The band was managed by Tom King, the guitarist for the legendary Cleveland band The Outsiders. We recorded several songs, many as demos for record companies. We also performed at multiple concerts in the Ohio and New York areas. The song "Never Again", written by legendary Cleveland songwriter Walt Nims, was played regularly on WMMS.

Billy is currently very active as an in-demand performing musician and his website is:
www.billysullivan.com

There were several lineups during the three years I was in the band, but players of mention include Kelly Hertrick (vocals), Annie Wisehart (vocals), Greg Crowe (guitar/vocals), Jim Cunningham (bass/vocals), Terry Evans (keyboards/vocals), Scott Dunbar (saxaphone), Michael Stephens (saxaphone), Ron Maitland (saxaphone), Dave Harrison (trumpet/french horn), Andy Platz (trumpet), Mark Van Deusen (trumpet), Tom Clarkson (trumpet), and Jeff Myers (trombone).

The band featured 60s and 70s horn based tunes. The main gigs consisted of oldies clubs and festivals. The band was Greg's vision of "bringing the music back". The musical arrangements included his hand written horn charts.

Greg continues to perform as a solo act. I have been invited several times to join him as a duo and it is always a good time. You can check out Greg's web site at: http://www.gregbackontrack.com

Over these many years I have worked with Donny Thompson on numerous projects. He currently runs his own recording studio and is available for recording and production. He also plays multiple instruments (drums, guitars, bass, keys), composes, arranges, and produces artists. I have recorded at his studio on numerous ocassions, and some of the tracks are found in my Recordings section. He also has been and continues to be a bandmate in Jonah Koslen's band.

I was in the band for a year and a half where the members were Phil Ridgeway (vocals/sax), Mike Sampsel (keyboards/vocals), Jim Fisher (guitar/vocals), and myself (drums/vocals). The band featured four part harmonies in the 50s style, so much so that we would often start sets with an acapella performance. The music included traditional swing numbers, well known ballads of the 50s, and pop hits of the 60s. The band played small nightclubs, country clubs, festivals, weddings, and anywhere 50s/60s music was in demand.

The band still performs today and you can find info at: http://www.philntheblanks.biz.

In the late 2000's Greg Crowe continued his vision of an oldies horn band with a band named Vinyl Approach. This band was similar to Class Reunion in the instrument lineup, but was focused on more energetic and dance oriented music. The lineup consisted of Greg Crowe (guirat/vocals), Tom Zitkovik (keyboards/vocals), Eric Warren (bass/vocals), Jay Calvin (sax/vocals), Lisa Roznovsky (sax/flute), Andy Platz (trumpet), Carl Kleinhenz (trombone), and myself (drums/vocals). This was a fun band, but unfortunately short lived due to the lack of demand for large ensembles.

In 2013 Tom Zitkovik organized a small light jazz quartet named After Nine, made up of members from Vinyl Approach. This band was strictly instrumental and specialized in performing jazz standards and pop songs with jazz arrangements. The band featured Lisa Roznovsky on alto and tenor saxaphones and also flute. along with Tom on keyboards. Eric Warren was on bass guitar while I played the drums. The band disbanded when Tom retired to Florida, but the few gigs we played were a blast.