Garris

MY STORY

HANDMADE MYSTIC PILGRIMAGE FOLK

In 2014, I put my guitar in its case, walked away from my music career,
and moved from Nashville to China.I was just a kid then, burdened by my childhood, and driven more by defiance than devotion.I spent the next decade becoming someone else. I went to therapy, dipped a toe in the Himalayas, started my family in Mexico, and eventually found myself running a children's music studio & teaching swing dance at a kindergarten in Kunming.But my guitar couldn't stay in its case. The songs I'd packed into the attic of my mind wouldn't stay boxed up either. They multiplied. They evolved...until suddenly there were 20 boxes worth, each of them different from the next.Indie folk is the foundation that obsession is built on, but it's just one room in the house. The others sprawl into an audio memory palace of color and experimentation — shaped by heartbreak, spiritual transformation, world travel, teaching, and fatherhood.

Now, after a decade of looking for answers and finding songs instead,
I’m no longer resisting my calling in music.
I’m embracing it.What I’m sharing, one song at a time, is the handmade soundtrack to my life — songs written mostly in private across twenty years and offered now not as a comeback, but as something long delayed.I’m beginning with my folk roots: warm acoustic and electric guitars, understated rhythm sections, reflective lyricism, and the intimacy of traditional Americana songcraft. But beneath all of that runs a more colorful current — longing, restless wonder, and a kind of inner travel.These songs come from the long way home.
Thank you for meeting me here as the road bends forward.

• HOME
• Music
• Video

• Shop
• Contact
• EPK