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Here's a little more about my background:

I've have always been immersed into music since I was a little kid. Probably the person that was most influential on me getting into music was my maternal grandmother. She constantly had music playing wherever she went -- I am very much the same now. Of course, she wasn't listening to Dream Theater. Instead she had a steady diet of Classical, Latin, and Italian music (she was born in Sicily and moved to Argentina when she was 8 years old). That music was influential on developing my early taste for guitar-oriented music and virtuoso playing.

I started playing guitar when I was in the third grade (1977). I played only acoustic guitar for the first five years. During this time, I started playing for church services for school (6th grade) and got into the folk group that played for Sunday services (7th grade).

I got into AC/DC in the 6th grade and my taste for rock/metal was born. I bought my first two albums shortly after, Blizzard of Ozz and Diary of a Madman. Other favorites at the time were Iron Maiden and Judas Priest. I then started getting into the more obscure, metal groups like Accept (before Balls to the Wall), Mercyful Fate, Fates Warning, Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth, Yngwie, etc... I had a taste for the long complex songs with many parts; usually involving virtuoso playing so eventually I found a name that described most of the groups I enjoyed the most -- Progressive Metal. I played in a few bands in high school including an 80s glam metal band! Hey, it was hard finding other musicians into the music I was into.

I was supposed to audition for Mystic Force in 1988, but the original guitarist decided to drop the second guitar from the line-up and that was the end of that. From August 1990 to April 1991, I played in the Mid-Atlantic regional classic rock band, Archer. We pretty much played out every weekend all over Baltimore, the rest of Maryland and the surrounding states of Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Washington D.C. (I know, it's not a state). We did some cool stuff, but my heart wasn't really into playing classic rock, so I left. A few various auditions later and jamming around I answered an ad in May 1992 for a local band doing *exactly* what I wanted to do. We became known as Vortex. We got along great, played some great music, and sounded really good. We played out one gig with Mystic-Force on New Years 1992 and things subsequently fell apart. I don't think I'll ever completely understand why, but I have my theory.

Meanwhile, I had gotten involved with going back to school and stayed out of the scene for many years. By the time I got out of school in December 1998, I was a father to two boys. Needless to say, being married with kids, a house, and working full-time didn't leave much time for playing music. The Internet allowed me to stay very much in touch with the whole progressive scene, so I hadn't forgotten about music -- far from it really. The calling was getting stronger and stronger.

In 2001, I met Dave (Vocals) and Ron (Bass), two new co-workers who started at the company within 3 months of each other. This proved to be the meeting that would result in pulling me out of "retirement" and the forming of Critical Path. We got rolling pretty quick once we found a drummer. After playing a big farm party near my home as a first show (definitely FUN), We jumped right into performing at the now-defunct Baltimore landmark, The Thunderdome. R.I.P. We covered progressive and classic metal from bands like Dream Theater, Queensryche, Fates Warning, Megadeth, Iron Maiden, Ozzy, Rush, etc... We played out [mainly] in Baltimore until May of 2004. It was during this time with Critical Path that I played some shows together with Odin's Court and Divison at the Thunderdome and The Hot Spot in Essex, MD and ultimately led to my move to Odin's Court. As for Ron, he can now be found beating the hell out of his bass in Divison.

In November of 2004, I ran into Matt Brookins from Odin's Court where he approached me about joining OC. We were both there to see Metal Church (my first time in 20 years) and support our friends in Division. I ended up joining the band at the same time as keyboardist extraordinaire, Savino Palumbo the following January. A few months later, the original bassist had to leave due to military re-assignment, so I brought my extremely talented bassist friend, Craig Jackson into the fold. We have been steadily gaining momentum and presented with bigger and better opportunities. We opened for many greats such as Symphony X, Kamelot, Sonata Arctica, and Spock's Beard. We even had the awesome opportunity of playing a mini-tour with progressive metal greats, Zero Hour, and the inaugural BAR Fest festival in San Francisco. It was also at BAR Fest where I got to fulfill one of my dreams to see Enchant perform live! We just completed our latest album titled, DEATHANITY -- a concept album about the direction in which the human race is taking the planet. It is currently being shopped to various labels. It is easily OC's best CD by far and I can't wait for the whole world to hear it! There are some samples on the Odin's Court MySpace to check out!

Hey, it takes a while to state 30 years of history of my playing. This is one aspect life of many, but this site is mostly for my music side. Which remember, IS my passion!

Thanks,

Rick

Order Deathanity - the new CD from Odin's Court!!