After leaving Eastern Iowa farm life, where I learned to shovel manure with the best of them, I came to Iowa State and a couple years later, began my musical "career" here in Ames with my first solo gig in the spring of 1982 at Dugan's Deli...Ah, Dugan's...how I loved thee. That performance, shall we say, "enhanced" my young relationship with Jean, who is now my wife of twenty- one years (We have two boys: Patrick, 16 and Danny, 10). In 1985, I hooked up with Bill Morrison forming the now famous acoustic duo, Morrison and Schmidt (It took us awhile to come up with that catchy name), and in subsequent years (while Bill was off "discovering" himself) I've had the priveledge of performing in various bands with the likes of great local musicians such as Carroll Altmann, Ray England, Tim Helgeson, Frank Karasinsky, Mike Parks, Larry "Red" Stoltenberg, and Neil Smith. Along with The Sofa Kings' drummer, Jordan Veech, and Bill, I'm still playing with the last two guys on that list. I love being a member of The Sofa Kings for our Friday night practices at my place (A great way to blow off steam), and I'm both proud of our original material and humbled by being included in a group of such great musicians. I hope we keep playing until we hit the nursing home circuit in the not-too-distant future!