A MUSICAL LIFE
I began my musical journey at the age of 11 on the saxophone in school band. Around the same time, I got an acoustic guitar and began my (often misguided) effort at teaching myself. After graduating high school with an honors degree in “band nerd,” I went to Rollins College where I graduated Magna Cum Laude with a degree in Music Theory & Composition. After graduating, my wife Amanda and I took a fantastic 6 year adventure to Denver where she got her masters degree, I played and taught music, and we jointly cultivated our burgeoning addiction to food, gardening, and agriculture. Along the way, I added to my arsenal the piano, bass guitar, and mandolin.
In 2011, we made the decision to pick up and move to the upstate of South Carolina to pursue the dream of building a self-sustaining homestead and farm on 15 acres near Westminster, SC. We are dedicated to consuming and producing local, sustainably raised food, and to that end raise an ever expanding menagerie that includes chickens, pigs, donkeys and an organic vegetable garden. We welcomed our first child, daughter Aria, to the world in 2012 and officially raised the banner to Callywood Farms in 2013. In 2014 we even built a live music stage and now host regular community music festivals. Little baby boy Woods joined the Callahan band at the Farm in 2016.
When I’m not working in the Carolina clay and tending to the farm, I teach music lessons across the Upstate, record and compose at FNKY Studios, play solo gigs, and perform with a variety of bands including Amongst The Trees, a funky trio that plays “Roots – Soul – Folk – Acoustic – Jam – ‘Grass” all around the region.
BJ is also the director of the coolest little music venue around, The Westminster Music Centre
That’s about it. Just a guy. With a very patient wife and a couple amazing kids. Some pigs, a lot of chickens, and too many guitars. A symphony’s worth of music constantly bouncing around my head and an incessant need to stay too busy and work too hard. 15 acres and a dream. Poor, happy, and always striving to make my tiny piece of the universe better, one song at a time.
My musical philosophy goes something like this:
Music is the universal thing that reaches all people to the deepest of their souls, and therefore can shed light on what it is to be truly human, and consequently can provide a pathway to a greater appreciation and unity with the world around us.
