Biography

I am a a singer/songwriter of traditional country and bluegrass music. I was born and raised in Four Oaks North Carolina. My music is an honest look at life's ups and downs, strong family values and the pit falls of the other side of life.

My musical journey started at an early age. As far back as I can remember there was music in my life. My dad and my granddad (Pa) were always playing and singing traditional country and bluegrass songs whenever the family would get together, even inviting other local musicians to join in. I got my first real guitar around the age of fifteen and from there I ran with it. I taught myself to play guitar and had written my first song around sixteen or seventeen years old. My first stage experience came from performing at the local community college country music showcases. At the time I was heavily influenced by Hank Williams Jr. and Lynyrd Skynyrd and I joined a southern rock band. I was in several fairly successful bands over the next ten years but my heart was calling me back to traditional music. I started playing solo shows for a while in 2007 and later that year I cut my first country music album of songs I had written with limited success. I then joined a band called The Nashville Rash, named after a Dale Watson song, and we played traditional country music together for about four years. This is when I met Gary Braddy, and I joined a band he was starting called The Barn Burners. We played contemporary country music and rock n roll. Though it was fastly becoming popular, it just wasn't the music i wanted to make. I convinced Gary to leave the group and start the band Eric Strickland and the B Sides with me. I was finally making traditional country music the way I wanted to. The band was very successful touring locally and out west. We recorded three albums over the next six years that were very well received. We were nominated for the Ameripolitan Awards Outlaw group of the year three years straight and I won the Carolina Music Awards Country Male of the year for 2013. After ten years of hard core country music I felt I needed a change to a less outlaw type of music so I left the B Sides and started doing solo acoustic shows, playing songs that Iv'e written over the years and cover songs.

I am excited to say that my journey through this life of music has finally come full circle. I have a loving wife of seven years, three wonderful kids and a fourth on the way. I am in the process of finishing up my first bluegrass album to be titled "Black and White and Blue", and I am looking forward to what the future holds for me. Keeping family values, God, and a love for tradition as my cornerstone.