About Ric

Well, now, that's a long story. Born in the 'Steeltown'of Hamilton, Ontario and 'raised up' in the suburbian world of Burlington, Ontario I have been hanging my hat in the town of Canmore, Alberta for the past 35+ years. What started out as a month of Spring skiing has turned into becoming almost "a local" in this most excellent mountain town. Since I have been here I have tried my hand at what I would call “a lot of stuff” including muchos jobs in the construction industry, newspaper reporter, gravedigger, house-husband, home based travel consultant and the guy who invented the Ski Track on Main Street event here in Canmore.

I guess I have also been what you might call 'prominent' in the local arts scene, including a 24 year engagement with the Banff Television Festival, being a founding member of the Canmore Folk Festival and a 34 year association with The Pine Tree Players, our community theatre company. I was also the Festival Director for the artsPeak Arts Festival for 5 years. 

A couple of other passions for me have been baseball, I was the Founding President of the Bow Valley Little League, hockey, I coached and managed teams here with Canmore Minor Hockey for about  13 years and basketball too! In my spare time I golf and sing, but never at the same time!

 So how does a 61 year old dude get to here? Afterall, what's wrong with watching TV and Bingo?

Well, about 6 years ago, I began working on realising my life-long dream of bringing my hidden musical talents ‘outta the closet’ and onto the stage. Funny how you know that you have something to offer but gool old self doubt just keeps you down. Anyhow, I decided that it was time and I spent a lot of time going back  to songs I had written along the way and in developing new works. Like so many others, I spent a lot of nights in the basement singing when no one was around and  battling that most formidable opponent called self doubt. I kept going with it, but, honestly, it was hard to get over that nasty little voice that kept saying, ‘hey, stupid, you're 55 years old! You can’t say you’re a songwriter now!’, but, I just said well, whatever, I’m just some old fool then, and, I played on.
 

In the Winter of 06/07 I started tuning up at some local Jam Sessions playing a few tunes here and there. I can tell you, I was scared shitless! Even though I have been on stage most of my life, this was really the first time I had said out loud 'uh, hey folks, you know, I have some songs I can sing"  Well, generally , the songs were well received which was certainly encouraging, but, the real turning point came in early Spring of 07 at Zona's Bistro when I let loose one night with my version of  "Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood". The crowd really liked it and this guy, a really big guy, comes up to me and says ‘" Hey, you know that song Misunderstood …(long towering pause) ... well, I really hate that song’" so I figured like I was going to get thumped real good, but then he says ‘'Well, I use to hate it, but after hearing you sing it I’ll never hate it again, you outta record that.'’ 

Well, that was really the turning point for me and from then on I started hanging out in the basement a whole lot more. Practicing and working on tunes. Then one night I told Joan that I wanted her to hear what  I had been doing and she sat down and listened to the 10 songs that I felt were ready. It was dumb, I was just so ridicously nervous, ‘cause playing for the one you love, well, that's  is the toughest test. At the end Joan gave me a such an undescribable smile, and, that moment, that was the birth of what has now become my CD - Since We Were Young “
 
There is much, much  more to the story of how this albulm came to be and some interesting 'twists of fate' that have brought the various contributors into place for the realisation of this dream. In the near future I will be updating this story so you can get a better idea as to how it all came to be.

For now, I can tell you that this album contains 8 original songs written over the years but which are just now being brought to the light of day. There is a mixture of Blues, Folk, Rock n' Roll and Country Rock. At the end of the day, something for everyone, I guess. One of the songs - "Spotlight" - is well over 30 years old, while a couple of others were written just last Spring so it’s an interesting retrospective. Since We Were Young  also includes what I believe are unique covers of  the classic hits; "If I were A Carpenter" and "Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood" 
 
One of the most common comments I have received about the songs starts with the phrase "Great stuff, you know, it reminds me of ... and then the long pause while they look for a name, usually comingbup empty. What I ahve come to realise is that the music, my music is very familiar, very reminicient and comforatble. I believe  this means I have succeeded in making some good tunes!

The songs have  been recorded and produced by the late and great Paul Baker of Bakerstreet Studios, Vancouver and feature arrangements by renowed session player, Robbie Steininger. What can I say, these guys are just plain sick with talent and without them this dream would have died an ugly death. In particular, I will be forever grateful and to Paul for his enormous and important contributions to this work. Thanks to Paul, the members of the band include some of the best players the Coast has to offer and I think you will find that our collective work is 'most excellent"!


In the meantime, you can sample some of the songs by going to Ric's Music