Hickory Arts was never intended to be just another lesson studio. It was imagined as a connected creative space for music, acting, theatre, photography, recording, performance, artist development, and community collaboration.

The studio on Highland Avenue, next to Johnson Piano & Organ Exchange, is currently and will hopefully continue to be home to Hickory, NC's first professional commercial recording and film post-production facility, photography, teaching & production studio, and Hickory's official house concert & master class venue.

Quality over quantity. Ask not what your students can do for you; ask what you can do for your students. Give a man a fish. You get the picture. The Jerry Maguire mantra is something that unfortunately escapes most teaching studios and is something I'm fortunately in a position to offer.

I appreciate but respectfully disagree to a certain degree with anti-secular music sermons regarding professed Christian artists who sing other lyrics that undermine Christian faith and values.

If there's one thing I've learned the hard way, it's that values are typically the first thing artists "sell out" in terms of money, success, and the prospect of opportunity.

Writing, arranging, and recording is a full-time gig. Space and focus are everything if you want your music to be the best it can be.

Sometimes it’s more obvious to others what one should be doing with his or her time. I got that speech later than sooner. At the end of the day, limits are an artist’s worst enemy. Happiness is what matters most, and if you’re happy, that’s a good thing.

What persuaded me to take a serious music plunge was the difference between being myself and pretending to be somebody else.

The email said, "This is all new stuff, so you would be able to add and help with the music process. You can create the combo and make the music your own, in your style!" For an original music advocate and musical director, this was like dangling a carrot in front of a rabbit!

There are fake books and real books. There are fake musicians and real musicians. The terms "full-time musician," "professional musician," or "working musician" are certainly used carelessly and liberally.

I've been on a crusade for some time now to convince music venues to start their music earlier.

What persuaded me to take a serious music plunge was the difference between being myself and pretending to be somebody else. As an actor, you're given the lines and given the direction. There are elements of yourself you bring to each character, but it still isn't something you can call your own.

As actors, directors, students, teachers, fans, and patrons of all forms and forums of theater, we must disagree with any suggestion that an exclusive relationship between student, studio, and stage is a good one.

Monday evening, I performed only my second staged reading, this one of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Harvey with Hickory Community Theatre.