Dropped out of the University of Connecticut, where he was studying literature, to attend the Hartford Conservatory of Music.
In the late 1970s his band The Leisure Class had become a Monday night fixture at Kenny's Castaways on Bleecker Street in Greenwich Village, New York City.
Was writer-in-residence and House Manager at the Noepe Center for Literary Arts on Martha's Vineyard until its closing in 2017.