Rick Yost
Sony Music's Tom Long says Rick Yost is,
"...very unique,...loads of talent,...a true singer/songwriter that has something to say."
"Monster-Guitarist", Award-winning Singer/Songwriter Rick Yost writes dark lyrics from his dark life and performs his compositions with an intesity derived from that same extreme existence.Band/artist history
One afternoon in 1969, my brother showed me the chords to Ghost Riders In The Sky.
I was thirteen then and in the thirty-five years since, I've learned what I know about music on my own.
In 1983, I was twenty-seven, divorced, confused, and depressed. My life up to that point had been very dark and I felt the need for a change. I purchased my first guitar since high school and began playing as a sideman for singer-songwriters like Don Steckler and Bob Ackerman. I stepped into a whole new life as part of the Lower Greenville Ave- East Dallas nightclub scene.
The first Rick Yost Group was an electric, rock and blues three-piece which formed in 1986. (Gary Via / drums, Michael Lampton / bass) The band survived a little over a year. From then to 2000, when I played, I played solo.
I recorded my first CD, Wichita Falls, in 1999.
My second CD, A Marvelous Turn In The Road, was released during Christmas of 2003.
I won the 2001 Wildflower Festival National Songwriting Competition.
I've opened for B.W. Stevenson, Robert Earl Keene, Ray Wylie Hubbard, 'Bugs' Henderson, Geoff Bartley, Jack Williams, Kinky Friedman, and more.
I've performed on television, radio, and worked freelance for recording studios. I've emceed open mics and songwriter showcases. Ive played State Fairs, Music Festivals, house concerts, nightclubs, and bars in Texas, New York, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, Hawaii and Europe. It's been a hoot.
"I was born at an early age. I decided I liked women and guitars, not necessarily in that order."biographyHave you performed in front of an audience?Yes. I play with my 5pc acoustic band every Friday happy hour at a great jazz club in East Dallas called the Balcony Club 214-826-8104. I perform at Music Festivals like the WildFlower in Richardson, TX; coffehouses such as Uncle Calvins in Dallas, have performed Club Passim in Cambridge,MA and The C Note in Manhattan.
Your musical influences
Everything! Any musician or band I've heard that has taken great time and effort to learn to do what they do, inspires me greatly. Eric Clapton, Michael Hedges, Led Zeppelin, Billy McLaughlin, Steely Dan, Miles Davis, Van Morrison, John Coltrane, Pat Metheny, Al Dimeola, Stanley Jordan, Tom Waits... (there isn't enough room here)What equipment do you use?
Well practiced hands and ears!
I play a Taylor 710CE cedar-top acoustic with a Fishman Prefix, on-board blender through a Korg Pandora effects box.Anything else?
There are times when all the chocolate, sex, drugs or shopping you can do will not shake the physical need you have to pick up a guitar (any guitar) and play. I'm not talking about feeling you need to scratch the itch on the back of your hand. I'm talking about the intense, claustrophobic feeling of being closed up in a small, stuffy, hot room. You feel you'll suffocate if you don't pick up your instrument and by doing so, open the door and breathe cool, fresh air again.
You're either an "Artist" and you MUST express yourself through your "Art" to avoid certain stress, depression and insanity; or you're a "Contractor"; you've learned the mechanics of an art form and everyone in your audience is another "potential sale".
Oh, and there is another category to mention here (and this usually gets me into trouble) these are the group I call "Hobbyists". Yes, I know they know how to play, they love to play, and they should certainly be able to play.
But for the rest of us that consider Music not just a hobby, but our Life, they're just more traffic blocking our way to where we have to go.
Go ahead, call me an extremist, you're right!
-Rick YostAdmin
Rick
@rick yost
