Rick Fines
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Rick Fines

Peterborough, Ontario, Canada

Peterborough, Ontario, Canada
Band Blues Folk

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Press


"Alabama review"

By Angie Long

...A musician from the "Great White North" won the hearts of the festival audience, taking home a check for $1,000 as winner of the competition.

Rick Fines of Peterborough, Ontario, won the top prize with his unique guitar styling, sly tongue-in-cheek humor and a distinctive voice, described by audience members as "a mix of Leon Redbone and Randy Newman."

Festival goers joined in on the fun during the afternoon as Fines performed his award-winning song, the amusing "Riley Wants His Life Back," just one of several original compositions the musician/songwriter shared with the audience.

The versatile musician transformed a song by fellow Canadian Gordon Lightfoot ("The greatest blues musician of Canada") into a blues number. He also performed blues standards from the 20s and 30s, "Lay Me Down a Pallet on the Floor" ("Here's one from way back in the 20s when I was just a young woman getting started myself")...


- Greenville Advocate


"Canadian Music Mag review"


There’s a noticeable trend today for roots musicians to take their inspiration from the sounds of the very recorded beginnings of their form, back to the 1920s and even before. Artists like the Asylum Street Spankers, Gillian Welch, Keb’ Mo’, Michael Jerome Brown and Toni Price seem to feel the art is getting more watered down all the time and, at the beginning of this century, we need to go back to the best sources we have. Like the artists listed above, The Rick Fines Trio is mining this tradition to great effect. The album is lush with the influences of the early Jazz and Jump Blues from Django Reinhardt to Meade Lux Lewis, Cab Calloway, Louis Jordan and Charles Brown.
The trio consisting of Rick Fines on guitar, Rob Phillips on piano and Richard Simpkins on stand-up bass has thoroughly absorbed these styles and it seems as natural to them as breathing. Fines sings in an intimate, relaxed voice that’s as steeped in jazz/blues as Dr. John or Mose Alison and just as effective. There’s even a little Zydeco thrown in. The trio also has great instrumental back-up from track to track, especially drummer Al Webster and the fine trumpet and cornet work of Chris Whiteley. Fines (with some help from the others) is also a fabulous songwriter and nearly every track is memorable. A must-have gem of a recording for those who dig their sound retro.
- By Barry Hammond
- Penguin Eggs, Issue 19 - Autumn 2003


"Scotland review"

“... the classic blues guitar picking and authentic-sounding vocals of Rick Fines were the sweetener. Harking back to the Blues ancients and using their music to inform his own, Fines was the classic unknown who whets the appetite - and an early opportunity to hear more would be welcome.”
Rob Adams - The Herald, Glasgow Scotland


"Solar powered review"

“… just Fines' parlour-sized flat-top guitar, its strings exquisitely picked and eloquently bent in the style of the great American country blues artists (Mississippi John Hurt, Doc Watson, Elizabeth Cotton, et al) from whom Fines learned this craft, and his gentle, throaty voice…
In the peace and isolation in which it was created, Solar Powered is enhanced by several wonderful performances, the most worthy of which are an eerily world-weary reading of Gordon Lightfoot's "Ribbon of Darkness" and "Mrs. Turner is a Sight," unwittingly co-authored by the late Canadian novelist Carol Shields, from whose comic story "Mrs. Turner Cutting the Grass" Fines borrowed liberally.”
Greg Quill, Toronto Star

- Toronto Star


"Solar Powered"

“Just try not to smile when Rick Fines is on the stereo. A gorgeous picker with a down-home voice and attitude, even Fines’ blues can lift your spirits. Recorded at his “little cabin in the woods” on, as the title suggests, solar powered systems, the material sounds sun-infused. Co-producer Alec Fraser and Fines explore all of the singer-songwriter’s influences, from the Mississippi John Hurt flavour of Home to Roost, to the jaunty picking of Half Full Cup, to the dandy hill-country picking of Country Christmas Blues. But the most interesting song in the collection is a “co-write” with the late Carol Shields, Mrs. Turner is a Sight, an adaptation of Shields’ short story Mrs. Turner Cutting the Grass, a simple but evocative moment in time.”
Norm Provencher, The Ottawa Citizen Saturday Aug 19 2006
- Ottawa Citizen


"Nothing Halfway"

“Marked by spirit and effective songwriting, there is nothing halfway about Nothing Halfway.” Brad Wheeler, Globe and Mail

“…a stunning collection of duets … a must-have disc!” John Valenteyn, MapleBlues Newsletter

“This is Saturday afternoon music that makes you feel good.” Eric Thom, Exclaim Magazine
- 2006 quotes


Discography

2006- Solar Powered
2006- Rick Fines and Suzie Vinnick-Nothing Halfway
2003- The Rick Fines Trio – Riley Wants His Life Back
2001- Rick Fines and Friends – Live at the Harvest
1998- Rick Fines - Out of the Living Room
1996- Rick Fines - Arcadia
1995- Rick Fines -Bootleg
1992- Jackson Delta - I Was Just Thinking That
1991- Jackson Delta - Lookin` Back
1989- Jackson Delta - Acoustic Blues
1988- Jackson Delta - Delta Sunrise

Others (sample)
2006 - Leela Gilday
2006 - Kim Beggs
2000 - Tamarack - Spirit and Stone
1998 - Dario Domingues - Los Vibrantes
1997 - Tamarack - 13
1996 - Rob Watson and Jackson Delta Electric Live
1994 - Suzie Vinnick - Angel In The Sidelines

Photos

Bio

It’s good to have a dream, a dream to work toward. Rick Fines’ fifth and newest solo CD is a step toward that dream of having a solar-powered home and studio in the woods north of Peterborough Ontario. Solar Powered was recorded in his little cabin in the woods, an off-the-grid production. Featuring ten new originals and a cover of Gordon Lightfoot’s “Ribbon of Darkness”, it’s recorded with just vocal and guitar (co-producer Alec Fraser plays bass and sings on one cut). Echoes of Mississippi John Hurt and Reverend Gary Davis can be heard in the guitar, but this is no mere imitation. The sound of foot tapping and the intimate vocal brings the listener right inside the little cabin in the Kawartha Highlands, where a master storyteller spins yarns and plays guitar.

Released simultaneously, Nothing Halfway by Rick Fines and Suzie Vinnick, is a full-band offering recorded in Toronto with some of the best from that scene. Al Cross (Big Sugar, Jane Siberry…) on drums, Richard Bell (The Band, Janis Joplin…) on keys, Colleen Allen and Chris Whiteley on horns… from soulful to moody to all-out rockin’ blues, this is what fans have come to expect from Rick and Suzie. Strong vocals, tasty guitars, heartfelt lyrics... it’s all here!

At 47, Rick Fines is a veteran of the folk and blues circuits in North America. In October 2005 Rick went to Alabama where he took first place in the Sweetgum Bottom Acoustic Blues Competition. His song “Riley Wants His Life Back” won first place in the blues category of 2003 International Songwriting Competition, with B.B. King one of the judges! He won the MapleBlues Award for Songwriter of the Year this year, Acoustic Act Of The Year twice (98, 99), and has received eight additional nominations. His work with Jackson Delta (for 15 years) brought nominations from both the Juno and the Handy Awards. He has played for legendary blues piano player Pinetop Perkins, songstress Colleen Peterson, folk icon Penny Lang and many others. He toured from the Gulf of Mexico to the Arctic, from B.C. to NYC last year alone, bringing his understanding of blues, finger-style and bottleneck guitar.

In addition to a busy touring schedule, Fines conducts classes and workshops. For several years now he has taught fingerstyle guitar at the Haliburton School of the Arts and blues guitar at Kincardine Summer Music Festival in Ontario and Hornby Island Blues Workshop in British Columbia. He also works with kids as part of the Blues In The Schools programs in Ottawa, Saskatoon, Toronto and Fredericton. This year Rick thanks the Ontario Arts Council for financial assistance with Blues In The Schools guitar and songwriting programs that took place in schools throughout Ontario.

Rick Fines (705) 748-9784
E-Mail: rick.fines@sympatico.ca
Web Site: www.rickfines.com
www.rickandsuzie.com

Performance Experience

Canadian

Concerts (sample)
National Arts Centre, 4rth Stage
National Gallery
Harbourfront, Toronto
Hugh’s Room, Toronto
Governor General’s Garden Party
West End Cultural Centre, Winnipeg

Festivals- 1988 – 2007 (sample)
Montreal Jazz Festival (3Xs)
Edmonton Folk Festival
Winnipeg Folk Festival
Regina Folk Festival
Calgary Folk Festival
Harvest Jazz and Blues, Fredericton NB (11Xs)
Mariposa Folk Festival (5Xs)
Home County Folk Festival
Ottawa Folk Festival (5Xs)
Ottawa Bluesfest (7Xs)
Vancouver Island Musicfest (2Xs)
Frostbite Festival, Whitehorse YK (3Xs)
Folk On The Rocks, Yellowknife NT (2Xs)
Lunenburg Folk Harbour Festival, NS (2Xs)

Awards
2006 – MapleBlues Award “SOCAN Songwriter of the Year” (nominations 2004, 2003, 1999, 1998)
2005 – Sweet Gumbottom Blues Acoustic Blues Competition, Greenville Alabama – 1st place
2004 – International Songwriting Competition – 1st place Blues Category (with BB King one of the judges)
2003 – MapleBlues Awards nomination “Best Male Vocalist”
2006, 2001, 1997 – MapleBlues Awards nomination “Acoustic Act of the Year”
2000 – “Cream of The Crop” Harvest Jazz and Blues Fest. (Fredericton) –voted most popular blues artist in festival’s 10 year history
1999, 1998 – MapleBlues Award “Acoustic Act of the Year”
1992 - Juno Awards Nomination “Best Roots and Traditional Album” (Jackson Delta)
1990 - Juno Awards Nomination “Best Roots and Traditional Album” (Jackson Delta)

Grants (sample)
2006/7, 2005/6, 2004/5 – Ontario Arts Council – Artists in Education
2006, 2004, 2000 – OAC - Composition