Sean moved from Michigan to middle Tennessee when he was 12 years old. He was suddenly surrounded not only by the folk and rock of the back-to-the-land generation of his parents, but also by the old-time music of the Appalachian Mountains. He spent his high-school summers in Austin, TX where he picked up guitar and piano from his father and played in a Latin music band.
He holds a M.M. degree in ethnomusicology, teaches college courses in the history of rock and Appalachian music at the University of Tennessee, plays in the John Myers Band, plays mandolin with the Carpet Bag Theater play Between A Ballad And A Blues, makes presentations about music from the Appalachian region, and performs regularly for children. He has also recorded four CDs of his own including his 2010 release for children and families entitled This Is Our House