Chip

Chip was born fully sighted and spent his early years in Tampa, Florida. At the age of 9, Chip was involved in a gun shooting accident that left him totally blind. For one year he attended school at the Alabama School for the Blind in Talladega, then was mainstreamed and transferred to Barrett Elementary in Birmingham. He later went to high school in Springville Alabama and then the Alabama School of Fine Arts in Birmingham. His involvement with music began in the elementary school band. Chip was lucky enough to connect with some exceptional teachers that fueled his desire to play music and later led to his career as a professional musician.

Starting out as a drummer and sometimes organist for local dance bands at the precocious age of thirteen, Chip was hooked. At the age of seventeen, while attending Piano Tech classes at E. H Gentry Technical Facility in Talladega, he was approached and accepted the job as a Sound and Light technician for a local Country act called the Wayne Hand Band. Eventually, the pull from the stage proved too strong and he returned to the spotlight as a keyboardist for the popular regional Dance band, Charter Oak. In 1984 Chip joined a Mid-West touring band and hit the road. Touring with many acts during the next three years Chip sharpened his keyboard skills till in 1987 he moved to Nashville Tennessee to play keyboards for the up and coming recording act Dixie Grey. Over the next seven years Chip worked as a session player in several Nashville demo studios, wrote radio and TV jingles at a Studio that was part of the Westwood One Network, played piano for a Delta Blues act at Opryland and even toured with several name recording acts.

In 1993 Chip returned to Birmingham and began playing again with local bands. After realizing the economy could no longer support a full time musician as part of a band, he struck out as a single act, which he has primarily done ever since. Working as much as seven nights or eleven shows a week in some of Birmingham’s most prestigeous venues, Chip has established himself as one of Birmingham’s hardest working and frequently sought after entertainers.

Chip isn’t all about music though. At the age of sixteen he worked for and received his Professional Radio Announcer’s License from the
FCC (Federal Communications Commission), at seventeen Attended Piano Tech classes at E. H. Gentry Technical Facility, and in 1993 attended Computer Science courses at Bessemer State Technical College. He also holds completed certificates in Business Administration, Sales and Business Management, Small Computer Information Interfacing and Networking, Bed & Breakfast Management, and is an Ordained Minister and licensed Wedding Officiate. He has also been a business owner over the years. Some of his ventures have included operating a commercial cleaning service, being a restaurant and lounge owner, running a PC networking and service company, and operating a web hosting service.

Chip has also tried to give back to the community in which he lives. Regularly donating his time to perform for non-profit events, he has performed many shows over the years for the different VFW (Veterans of Foreign Wars) posts in the area to help raise funds for different occasions, often playing Thanksgiving and Christmas shows for the Blinded Vets from the Veterans Hospital’s Southeastern Blind Rehabilitation Center. He has provided free web hosting and web master services to the Southeastern Blind Rehabilitation Center Alumni Association, has participated in the Muscular Dystrophy Association’s Stars Behind Bars fund Raiser and much more. He also donates a large part of his time providing free computer tech support to other blind Alabamians.

Chip now lives in Copperhill Tennessee with his childhood sweetheart and wife, Tracy, and their two totally spoiled dogs, (Astro and Honey,) and their cat Tuckett. He regularly performs his nightclub act in local restaurants and lounges, and spends a good part of his day in his recording studio writing, recording and listening to music.