Physics teacher and Blues Club sponsor Stephen Houpt just released his ninth music album, Riding the Waves. Consisting of nine completely instrumental tracks, the album runs just over 40 minutes in length. Houpt worked with Drama teacher Marion Glorioso in the album’s production. The album is available via Spotify.

 In addition to his discography of albums, Houpt posts videos regularly to his YouTube channel, where he has amassed over 300,000 views. He first started posting videos of himself playing his 1927 Weissenborn acoustic guitar nearly 17 years ago, long before he began releasing albums in 2015. 

“I played guitar for my children, singing them songs,” Houpt said. “After a while, I began playing bottleneck guitar.”

Commonly used in blues music, this style of playing uses a sliding mechanism to create unique sounds. Soon after learning this new style, Houpt started releasing his music on the internet. Particularly helpful for his first album was his neighbor Amy Harms, who provided vocals.

“We started playing in clubs, and then we made an album,” Houpt said. “At the time, I was 67 years old.”

Houpt didn’t let age stop him, and he continued to release albums on an almost-yearly cadence leading up to his most recent project. He often promotes his music via Facebook and other social media platforms and will continue to pursue his passion in the years to come.