From Air Force to opera to singer-songwriter

Because the contemporary-ballet troupe's work was more "stylized movement" than dance, May says, he could perform despite having had a spinal fusion in 1993. But pain that eventually led to a hip replacement in 2007 forced him to stop dancing.

"That's when I decided to go back to writing music full time and doing it seriously," he says.

For his first two albums, Once Was Red and Fate Said Nevermind, May collaborated with local producer and multi-instrumentalist Anthony Newett and songwriters such as Stephen Patti and Jerry Guerra. The 2006 debut, featuring "Lights Out in Tupelo," got airplay from WXPN-FM.

"We got great exposure right off the bat, so we decided to start playing live," says May, who originally intended to pitch songs to other artists.

So the piano-playing singer is once again displaying his talents from the stage, as well as in the studio.

"I never got the artistic satisfaction from singing opera that I got from this," he says. "In opera you're singing words and music someone else wrote and countless other singers have done before you. It's hard to really put your mark on it.

"The first time I sat in the dark and listened to my completed CD, that was far more gratifying to me than singing at the Academy of Music.

"Not that I didn't love that. There's no greater thrill than being backstage in costume hearing the overture of an opera when you're the first one out on stage."

But now, "it's all about creating."

"This is definitely where I was supposed to be."