Bio

Rick was born and raised in Wellesley, Massachusetts where he grew up listening to early Rock n’ Roll greats like Chuck Berry and Buddy Holly. He heard his first country song in a friend’s dorm room at Harvard -- “Honky Tonkin,” by Hank Williams -- and he hated it. Little did he know that he’d wind up dedicating his life to writing country music and teaching songwriting.

Rick left Massachusetts to serve in Vietnam and was discharged on San Francisco’s Treasure Island in 1968 just as Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Jefferson Airplane were launching the “San Francisco Sound” nationwide.

California

After landing in San Francisco, he put together his first band, Driver, and joined Fat Max and the Casuals playing regular gigs at the Motherlode and the Drinking Gourd, the same iconic San Francisco venues that first showcased Jefferson Airplane and the Mommas and the Poppas.

It was when he heard Waylon Jennings’ “Good Hearted Woman” that he decided to change his mind about country music. The year was 1973 and the cosmic cowboy scene in Texas was in full swing. Rick packed up and left San Francisco for Austin.

Texas

Townes Van Zandt, Willie Nelson, and Waylon Jennings were among the Texas cosmic cowboys and they quickly took notice of Rick’s new band, Rick Casual and the Kitchen Band, at the Armadillo World Headquarters. Not long after arriving in Austin, Rick began touring across Texas and the southwest opening for Willie and Waylon, and headlining gigs with Townes Van Zandt and Willis Alan Ramsey.

After settling into the Texas scene, Rick entered the Kerrville Folk Festival’s songwriting competition where legendary country songwriter Linda Hargrove took notice and offered him a publishing deal in Nashville.

Nashville

While writing for Pete Drake’s Silverline Publishing, Rick’s classic country songs were recorded by George Jones, Don Williams, the Everly Brothers, Brenda Lee, John Conlee and more. “If Drinkin’ Don’t Kill Me Her Memory Will” was a hit number one song.

In 1985, Rick shifted his focus, nurturing young songwriters: he directed the Kerrville Folk Festival songwriting school from 1985 until 2010, and in 1990, he helped create the Nashville Songwriter’s Association International’s first Song Camp. He created the first songwriting class for Belmont University in 1995 and taught there until 2019.

Today, when not coaching individual songwriters or giving seminars, he divides his time between Nashville, Los Angeles and Europe writing songs with young aspiring artists.