Rick Clark

Rick Clark’s Bio

 You might well ask, how is it that a talent like Rick Clark is only now releasing his first album well into his ‘60’s? Well, you might want to sit down.

Any good tale is a long one and the end result is this album, finally here after decades of fits and starts with a lot of heartache in between. There’s the usual crazy stories of time logged in known and unknown bands past with names like The One-Eyed Trouser Snakes or The Mendocino Rhythm Method.

But you could also say that part of Rick’s story included being the younger brother of Gene Clark of The Byrds, one of the best singer-songwriters on the planet. You’ve heard of that dilemma of something being both a blessing and a curse? 

Rick Clark was born on the 18th of March, 1952 into a Kansas City, Missouri family that eventually produced 13 kids. His was a real country upbringing. He remembers when they didn’t have indoor plumbing and the outhouse was more than just a modern day quirky garden decoration. His mother Jeanne worked as a cook in the cafeteria at Sacred Heart School in Bonner Springs, Kansas. She also wrote poetry. Rick’s father Kelly, in addition to being a virtuoso guitarist, mandolin and mouth harp player worked as a golf course architect and superintendent. People from all over the country would call Kelly for advice on turf and landscaping. All the Clark boys went to work for their Dad.

Straight out of high school, Rick made his way to California where his brother Gene was pursuing a solo career. For the next 20 years off and on until Gene’s death in 1991, Rick lived with and worked with his brother, a collaboration that produced a song touted by many as a masterpiece, “Del Gato” (a 1999 bonus recording appears on this album). 

But all through those years, Rick was observing all the pitfalls of a music business that brought his brother down and so, years went by where he just had to pursue other things -- like carpentry. He actually apprenticed under a talented carpenter who was also a budding young actor, a guy named Harrison Ford.

“A Million Fallen Tears” brings together the finest array of musicians one could hope for. Produced by multi-instrumentalist Buddy Woodward (who did most of his tracks out of his Spatula Ranch studio in Nashville), there were players and vocalists stretching from Idyllwild, CA to Chicago to Fletcher, NC. Mastered by the illustrious Bob Katz at Digital Domain in FL and lovingly overseen by Patrick Coleman of Cole-Has Records, this album took over 4 years to come to fruition and even that wasn’t your usual labor of love story.

On November 8, 2018, just days after Rick got off the plane from Nashville back to his home in Paradise, CA, the unimaginable happened. The town was decimated by the Camp Fire, the deadliest fire in California history. The instruments and the dogs were saved, but everything else was lost -- except these recordings.