Rick Simon

Rick Simon was given his first guitar for his 18th birthday. He fell in love with the instrument immediately and devoted every spare moment to it. "When I have a guitar in my hands, time stops" says Simon. Months later in University he started an acoustic band with Lauren Mackenzie and Adrian Texter called the Wild Marvins. A year later, the band morphed into a five piece Rock Band losing "Tex" but gaining Ryan Nadon on lead guitar, Susanne Stock on bass and Colin Jackson on drums. Before going on stage for their first big concert Rick asked Ryan if he was nervous being extremely nervous himself, Ryan answered, "no, I deserve to be here." The band members became extremely close friends. Years later, both Lauren and Ryan stood up for Rick at his wedding, his bride was that beautiful bass player, who is now Susanne Simon. After completing University, Rick met Jacqui Swain in Innisfail where they were both teaching high school. Jacqui is a gifted lyricist and they quickly hit it off writing songs together on evenings and weekends. "We would buy a bottle of wine, I would bring my guitar, and Jacqui her pad of paper and just write all weekend." As Jacqui says, "writing songs together is a pleasure, writing by yourself is work." Simon later moved to Calgary to teach. Jacqui and Rick continued writing, even over the phone at times, songs such as “Tongue Tied” and “Make Me Smile.” In Calgary Rick met Shawn Kingston, a classically trained guitar player, who became a large influence on Rick's music. Together they played in a band called Blame Louie that included Louie Spehar on drums, Jacqui Swain on vocals and later Jim Kramer on bass. In early 2008 Simon took what he calls “the fatal plunge” and began working on his first album, Hold On. “I initially wanted to record my ideas in rough using Ryan Nadon as an engineer. We first recorded sections of Tongue Tied, Hold on, and The Rest of My Life and I was so impressed with the quality that we used those cuts for the real thing.” Simon then built his own recording studio to complete the album and used Nadon to assist in mixing and engineering the songs. Rick met David Strattford who mastered his CD and later became his manager. Finally, the CD was released in May of 2009, a dream come true for Simon. Now living in Airdrie with his wife Susanne, and son Joshua, Rick looks forward to promoting his album, Hold On, over the next year.