In life, I find that the more one lives it, year after year, one truly finds out more about oneself. Coming to a foreign yet beautiful land, I am thinking about my music more than ever before when I was in the States and that I HAVE to do this next CD even though it will only be a few songs. Oftentimes, people ask me who are my influences. For those who know me, I have said many times that James Taylor and Stevie Wonder are great heroes of mine.; yet, if I truly look at my musical makeup, aside from the Classical influences like Wagner, Profofiev, Mussorgsky, and Beethoven, my musical style has been shaped by a basic pattern( but not confined by it): Stevie Wonder influenced me in terms of not only his great artistry but his vocal style; Paul McCartney influenced me to the degree of being a multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and performer; James Taylor influenced my acoustic guitar style;the late great (and GROSSLY underappreciated) Dan Fogelberg without a doubt, influenced my songwriting style along with the magnificent Gordon Lightfoot; Billy Joel was also a HUGE influence on my piano playing which, I am sure, you can hear in my song "The Knight and The Queen". Looking back, I can safely say that these are my idols and always will be and the music world has greatly benefited from their towering examples.BKT