I play guitar and fiddle with Exploit, as well as lead & harmony vocals.  My wife Michelle and I have 3 children:  Levi (13), Griffin (9), and Ashton (4), all musically inclined.  I have worked as a certified public accountant (CPA) since 1992, and am currently the controller for Pro-Tec Coating Company in Leipsic, Ohio.  I started playing music professionally in 1977.

 I grew up around Glandorf, Ohio in a musical family of 7 kids.  People were practicing all of the time.  From age 8 to 11, I took guitar lessons in Ottawa with the late Jim Bonham, who taught me music theory and improvising solos as well as “playing the notes on the page”.  Jim’s teachings on improvisation and music theory have proven to be the most important knowledge I have gained throughout my musical career.  I also played trombone with the school band, and in high school I taught myself 5-string banjo and fiddle.  At age 14, Dad hired me as the guitarist for his band, the Bob Burwell Combo, which also included 2 of my brothers.  We performed a variety of music, and it was a great experience in the operation of a live band, getting people to the dance floor, playing tightly with other musicians, and most importantly for a high school kid, getting paid to do it.

 In high school, Bob Schroeder, Rudy Okuly, and I co-founded the Blanchard Valley Bluegrass Boys.  Soon Lynn Fox was added, and we performed extensively from 1980 until 1986.  (See Bob’s bio for more details on the Blanchard Valley Bluegrass Boys.) 

 After high school, I majored in music at Bowling Green State University, studying trombone and jazz guitar from 1981 to 1982.  My guitar teacher Fred Hamilton pushed me to higher levels of harmonic complexity.  Fred used to say “look for the cool notes”, which most people not interested in jazz hear as “wrong” notes.  But I really liked the sound, and being aware of these harmonic devices was a key part of my development as a performing musician. 

 After a year at BGSU, I left college to play bluegrass banjo and fiddle as a full-time profession in the Blanchard Valley Bluegrass Boys.  Then in 1986, Bob and I helped co-found the Buck Tanner Band, a contemporary country band in which I made a transition back to the guitar, still maintaining a secondary role on the banjo and fiddle (See Bob’s bio for more details on the Buck Tanner Band).  Elwood was also in this band on keyboards and saxophone.  In 1989, I left Buck Tanner to co-found the band Stages, a classic rock band which included my brother Joe Burwell on bass, Steve Kersh on drums, Dwight Redmon on guitar, and my brother-in-law Dwight Closson on keyboards.  It was during Stages that I went back to college, and in September 1992 I graduated from Ohio State University, Summa Cum Laude in Accounting.  Passing the CPA exam in November 1992 marked the end of a 6-year transition from full-time bluegrass musician to CPA.

 This transition didn’t get me completely out of music, however.  I have filled in with many area bands over the years, as well as being a permanent member of Exploit from 1996-2000 and the BBC band from 2000-2003.  BBC was a band like “Chicago”, playing a mixture of rock and R&B with a horn section.  BBC was also a fun opportunity to be in a band with 3 of my brothers at once – Jack on trombone, Bill on trumpet, and Joe on lead vocals & keyboards.  And it was Exploit that allowed me to continue the long performing relationship with Bob Schroeder, as well as a first working opportunity with Mark Utz (drums) and Andy Flores (keyboards).  Exploit was my “band of choice” except for the fact that playing as often as we did, working as a CPA, and having a growing family were too much, and I regretted having to leave the band in the year 2000.  Now that the aspects of my life are more in balance, I welcome the opportunity to “make some noise” with 3 good friends in Exploit.

 Musicians who have influenced me:

Rock guitarists:  Jimi Hendrix, Eddie Van Halen, Steve Vai, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Eric Johnson

Jazz guitarists:  Wes Montgomery, George Benson, Pat Metheny, Larry Carlton, Lee Ritenour

Country/bluegrass guitarists:  Brent Mason, Tony Rice

Classical guitarists:  Andres Segovia, Christopher Parkening

Violinists:  Richard Greene, Mark O’Connor

Banjo:  Earl Scruggs, J.D. Crowe, Bela Fleck

Others:  Charlie Parker (sax), Dizzy Gillespie & Miles Davis (trumpet), Herbie Hancock (piano), Jaco Pastorius, Chris Squire (bass), Tony Williams, Bill Bruford (drums).