Writing songs has been a friend of mine since I was a small child. Words and music started "coming through" when I was around 6 years old. However, there is a short clip on my latest cd, "A Thousand Songs", which features me at age 2 1/2, where my mother states "I thought you'd like to hear what goes on around here, Ricky's always singing songs he makes up out of his head". I am not making this up. When I was a teenager and needed a song to impress Maureen Peloquin on the beach at Lincoln City, Oregon, I sang her that one about my board and my woody. When my daughter Stacey was born, I wrote "Stacey's Song", which later made an appearance during the father-daughter dance at Stacey's wedding, and then, at the foot of Stacey's hospital bed, where I sang it once again after my second grandson was born, at Stacey's request. When my old band, The Morning Reign, needed a new protest song, I wrote "Love it or Leave (gonna make me heave), a knock on those 60's "Love it or Leave" bumper stickers. When I was on the way out of my second marriage, all those songs of sadness and loss, with their morbid metaphors, somehow made me feel better about myself. When NPR's "CarTalk" needed car songs for their show, I cranked out 7. And then, when I met the pluperfect Marie, in 1997, I embarked on a frenzy of writing and recording, which has resulted in 6 full length cds. Thank you so much Marie for your inspiration and love. There are even two songs about my step-son Blaine, "Like Him That Way", and "Motown Man". Truth is, its not really about me.
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