My Story

      I began my career in music on the business side, as a concert promoter. My first shows included dates for the first US tours by Rush and Heart back in the mid seventies, and continued on to include The Eagles " Hell Freezes Over " tour in the mid nineties, before retiring in the early 2000's. During this period of my career,  I had the honor of working with such artists as Johnny Cash, Stephen Stills, John Denver, Dave Matthews, Tony Bennett, and many others.

      I always  loved music, growing up listening to my dad's wonderful old Sinatra records. Around the age of 12 or so, I started learning the guitar, had the usual garage band in high school, and kept playing throughout college and my early concert business career. After the suicide of my business partner, I for some reason put aside the guitar and left it untouched for about 20 years. I picked it up again shortly after the death of my father in 1997, and instantly remembered the joy, solace, and strength that playing gave me.

      In 2005 I had the unique opportunity to switch sides of the business, so to speak. I was fortunate enough to start working with a mentor, the multi Grammy award winning producer, David Kershenbaum, who took me under his wing and nurtured me over the course of years, finally resulting in my first album, Cardo & Friends. This record is a reflection of my many influences; including Stephen Stills and Manassas, Poco, latin rhythms from my border upbringing, bluegrass elements I've always loved, all joined together within a rock band framework.

         Since it's release, I have been asked to write songs for a television show, started a record label, CardoTunes, released three more records,  and have one in the can, which is a soundtrack to an unreleased film.  Currently, I am working on my fifth record, as well as a documentary feature film about pursuing dreams and helping others achieve theirs, while overcoming the obstacles, hardships, and roadblocks that life throws at all of us.

         I sincerely believe it is incredibly important to give back and help others whenever possible. With that goal in mind I started an artist development camp which exposed up and coming talented regional artists to a real life taste of what it is to take a song from start to finish, working in the studio with talented producers and musicians. The camp covered composition, musical structure, lyrics, engineering, and production. Here is the intro video to CardoCamp.  To make this knowledge and insight available to all, I made The Ultimate Songwriting Course, which is offered online. It is a comprehensive course which basically covers all aspects of songwriting from A to Z. I will also be offering online mentoring sessions in the near future.