 He spent his early career in the 1970s primarily in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, playing in local rhythm and blues bands and strip clubs, as well as spending large parts of each year on exhaustive road trips to taverns throughout rural British Columbia and Alberta.By the late 1970s and into the mid 1980s he was appearing as a sideman with artists such as Albert Collins, Doug and the Slugs, the Coasters, the Platters, the Temptations, and Buddy Knox.In the late 1980s he relocated to Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and then New York City, working with the bands of Lloyd Williams, Solomon Burke, Danny B, and Kenny Margolis.