Age: 31

HOMETOWN: Lancaster, Ohio

OCCUPATION: Music teacher at Augusta Preparatory Day School and director of The Jessye Norman School of the Arts

GUITAR: Simon & Patrick acoustic

MEMBER OF: The Eleventh Hour, 2007-08; My Instant Lunch, 2008-present

FAVORITE CONCERT ATTENDED: The Avett Brothers at Still Water Tap Room, about 2005. "It was just a really great, intimate concert, and it was the first time I had heard them. And I totally just fell in love with the sound."

MEMORABLE SHOWS: The Eleventh Hour at the WELL, 2008. "I actually secretly brought my chorus (from Augusta Prep) with me -- they were part of the audience -- and without letting the audience know, they joined us in a song and totally freaked the entire audience out."

EMBARRASSING MOMENT: Coffeehouse in Evans, about 2003. "It was just a friend and I ... and I wanted to add the accordion ... and I totally just killed a note in the middle of a song, and when you kill a note on the accordion, it pretty much sounds like an elephant dying."

Favorite Movies: Logan's Run and Once

FAVORITE RESTAURANT: The Bee's Knees

MUSICAL ROOTS: "I'm actually a piano player by nature. I started playing the piano when I was probably 7, and then I gave it up for a long time and picked it back up right before I went to college for music. And right about that time, I just decided one day I wanted to pick up the guitar and learn how to play. ... I guess I've created my own sort of acoustic guitar style based on listening to other people play."

FAVORITE PLACES TO WRITE SONGS: "I love to write songs in my living room; that's where a lot of song-writing happens. ... The roof is also another favorite."

HANDPICKED CONCERT LINEUP: Jump, Little Children, By The Way They Dance; Queen, Bohemian Rhapsody; The Avett Brothers, Pretty Girl at the Airport; Stevie Wonder, any song; My Instant Lunch, Mathematics; The Eleventh Hour, Desert Nights