Highlights
Audio engineer, producer, and composer with 25+ years across live production, broadcast, studio, and sync music. Voting Member of the Recording Academy (Class of 2023).
• Live production: Production Manager and Front of House Engineer at Empire Live, Albany's 1,000-capacity live music venue (since September 2024). Previously FOH and broadcast engineer for WAMC's The Linda, Cafe Lena, and NorthwayChurch.tv.
• Television & sync: 540+ ASCAP-registered works heard in 500+ TV series, including Pawn Stars, Duck Dynasty, Impractical Jokers, Moonshiners, 90 Day Fiancé, Top Chef, Southern Charm, and Chicago Fire. Composer/producer services as a subcontractor to Orchestrata for its client, Kinney Drugs (2023–2025).
• Sports: Music in the NCAA Tournament, NFL on CBS and FOX, NASCAR, MLB Network, PGA Tour golf, and regional NHL broadcasts.
• Worldwide: Broadcast in 100+ countries and streaming on Netflix, Hulu, Max, Disney+, Peacock, and Paramount+.
• Producer & mixer: Recent credits with The Sugar Hold, Wild Adriatic, and ShortWave RadioBand.
• Stage: Nearly two decades of national touring. Square Pegs has opened for Dokken, Eddie Money, Tiffany, and Blessed Union of Souls.
• Teacher & writer: 7,800+ private lessons, NYS-certified audio recording instructor, and GuitarWorld.com contributor.
Fun facts
• Goodbye Jerome: My first love was Ozzy and Randy Rhoads. A friend gave me a tape copy of the Tribute album with no labels, so I honestly thought "Goodbye to Romance" was called "Goodbye Jerome." Tribute came out in April 1987, five years after Randy was killed in a plane crash in March 1982.
• The loudest cymbal of all time: At 11, I was in a drum corps called The Mystic Knights. They let me borrow a 24-inch ride cymbal, no joke, the biggest cymbal I've ever seen. I didn't have a cymbal stand, but I DID have a wooden chair with the back broken off. I stuck a drumstick in one of the empty dowel holes, balanced the cymbal on it, put on headphones, and beat the crap out of it to Ozzy and Def Leppard for an hour every day. I still have it.
• Where the name came from: I came up with "The Duke Western" in 2005. I thought it'd be funny to name my music like some kind of event instead of a traditional name.
• Super Bowl surprise: 45 minutes before Super Bowl 50, I got a message from my agent telling me to watch. My track "Go Get It" was in one of the commercials.
• Small screen, big audience: My music has turned up on everything from Duck Dynasty and Pawn Stars to the NCAA Tournament and Jeopardy! promos.
• Drums, then bass: As soon as I graduated college with a degree in jazz drum set... I joined a hard rock band playing bass!
• Late to the click: I somehow graduated college having NEVER practiced with a metronome. Then at 32 I became roommates with the best drummer I've ever known, and it became painfully clear I needed one. I couldn't even play quarter notes in time with it! Now I do everything to a metronome: working out, walking, vocal practice.
• Humble beginnings: My first mixing gig was at an open mic in Oswego, NY, at Old City Hall. They had me mix because when I would play I only knew maybe 5 songs.
• Gig number two: My second mixing gig was subbing for the touring engineer for Toys in the Attic, and when we weren't on the road he'd have me mix a local party band. I'm still friends with all of them. Their keyboardist plays in the Toys in the Attic Harborfest video, and somehow YouTube picked him as the thumbnail!
• A cappella detour: I got a gig as the tenor in one of those a cappella groups, because I could find difficult harmonies, but REALLY because I could impersonate an electric guitar solo with my voice. I ran my mic through a Tech 21 Liverpool pedal and was the only wired mic onstage. I'm not sure I was any good at it, but I am sure that it happened.
• Required viewing: I've watched Aerosmith: The Making of Pump HUNDREDS of times, and I've bought the DVD three times in my life.
• After you, Tiffany: In 2019, my old band Square Pegs did some reunion shows for fun, and one of them opened for Tiffany. After soundcheck, Sherry from the band and I were walking out the back door just as Tiffany was walking in, and the three of us froze in a classic "no, you go first" moment.
• Battle scars: The tip of my right index finger is bent because I used to hold the guitar pick too tight! The nail on that finger is permanently deformed, too. If you wanna see a photo, I take PayPal.
• Guitars with a rap sheet: All of my Schecter guitars have a police record. Every one of them has been stolen and returned to me at different times.
• Roadside assistance: Once my car died a quarter mile from a NYS Thruway exit in the middle of the night. Getting towed the extra half mile through the toll booth would have cost a few hundred dollars more, so I pushed it.