Real name: David M. Combs

Effective period / Period of releases: 1989

Dave Combs, a native of Erwin, Tennessee, grew up in a family that enjoyed making music and taking photographs. Both of his parents and his grandmother Combs played the piano, and Dave's father was skillful at the technique of color tinting black and white photographs. So, if Dave's hands were not busy playing the piano, they were often holding an early Kodak box camera or looking at beautiful photos in a National Geographic Magazine. While in college Dave took an aerial photography course, further stimulating and broadening his interest in photography. Also during his college years, Dave played the piano and served as choir director for his home church in Erwin. After college he moved to Winston-Salem, North Carolina where he served as Minister of Music at a church, worked as a computer programmer, and further developed his skill and interest in photography. Dave's first musical composition, Rachel's Song, was recorded by Gary Prim in 1986 and continues to be a popular instrumental standard around the world. The beautiful dogwood photograph on the cover of that album was taken by Dave. Since that time, Dave has written, produced, and released several additional instrumental albums of beautiful and inspiring melodies, and most of the album covers carry his equally beautiful and inspiring photography. An article written by Dave about how music has changed his life and touched the lives of millions of people appeared in the September 1994 issue of Guideposts magazine. In the past several years many of Dave's beautiful photographs have appeared in the Blowing Rocket weekly newspaper in Blowing Rock, NC. Dave and his wife, Linda, live in Winston-Salem.