After being sentenced to play in several unremarkable garage bands while
still in high school, Kurt was paroled and released into the custody of
PAYDIRT, a rag-tag folk-rock group of writers and other misfits. The late
1970s found him stretching his wings for a solo flight at the now-defunct
HOLE IN THE WALL SALOON on Hillsborough Street in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Later, while under the influence of Jack Kerouac, Jesse Winchester, and Townes Van Zandt,
Kurt spent some time hitchhiking coast-to-coast, playing in the streets and parks
of New Orleans, New York, Memphis, and San Francisco.

In the early 1980's, Kurt was in Greenville, North carolina fronting THE GUISE,
whose repertoire ran the gamut from George Jones and Johnny Cash to Iggy Pop
and The Cramps, as well as hard-to-classify originals. Relocating to Raleigh in 1983,
Kurt once again pursued the solo angle. While gigging with short-lived funk/blues
party band BUTT MUSCLE (which included former-Backslider Steve Howell, blues
whiz "Near Blind James" Shoe, and former-Bad Checks drummer Mike Griffin) a
videotape was made that resulted in Kurt being drafted as a "hired gun" harmonica player
and second guitarist in the popular Raleigh cowpunk ensemble THE LEOPARD SOCIETY.

After hosting a Bluegrass and Classic Country radio show for about a year,
the next band out of the chute for Kurt was THE NERVOUS TICKS,
who gained some local rock radio airplay with his "Tommy Don't Cry".
Having built his own house, and moved out to what used to be rural southern
Wake county, Kurt once again returned to his folkie roots. Brandishing his
acoustic guitar and harmonicas, writing and playing original songs with a
traditional bent, Kurt was found in venues as wide-ranging as Montessori
Schools, motorcycle bars, restaurants, and rest homes. He has performed at
THE FESTIVAL FOR THE ENO  and THE HAW RIVER FESTIVAL.