RICK PARK BIOGRAPHY:

Rick Park is accepting guitar students in the Arcata, CA area! Beginner-friendly, can teach note-reading and tab, but also teaching advanced Melodic Fingerstyle a la Hurt, Kottke, Kaukonen, and in Slide Guitar. All musical styles taught: blues, folk, standards, some jazz and classical. Call Rick at 707-826-0357 or contact Rick by email for more info or to set up a lesson.

Rick Park's latest CD is a re-release of Mr Gen-U-Wine Plays Bottleneck Slide Guitar. It has now been transferred to CD, with 5 pieces dropped and one new tune. CD will be sold with a transcription of the tunes into a booklet, plus a slide. "Shakespeare and the Sonettes: The Bard's Blues", Rick;s previous CD, has sold all 200 copies of the first edition, and is now into its second edition and pressing. He also has a 1995 CD and 1993 and 1987 cassette tapes. He is featured on a 1976 LP anthology of guitar players from Puget Sound Guitar Workshop. Read complete descriptions and listen to songs on Recordings Page.

REVIEWS for SHAKESPEARE AND THE SONETTES: THE BARD'S BLUES:
A phone call from a Mt. Shasta fan named Joel Dunsany, was relayed to Rick Park by Suttertown Press publisher, Tim Holt. Joel said: "Tim just played me the new CD and I want to tell you, good work deserves to be praised! It was clever, it was funny, your singing is strong, the guitar playing is tasty as you please, the two women's voices harmonize just beautifully. I guarantee you, the audience would love this......... Good work, man, just excellent stuff."

From Rick's friend of 20 years, Cathy Rohm, who now has a position as a DJ on little radio KFOK out of Greenwood, CA said: "Listened to it. LOVED it!"

A review written by Nick Holbrook, a 30-year member of the SF Folk Music Club, for the May 2006 issue of their internationally distributed newsletter, Folknik: "Do you like unusual, thoughtful songs? Do you like humor? Do you like erudition? Do you like Shakespeare? Do you like good solid melodies played by an award-winning fingerpicker? Look no further: run, don't walk, to your nearest CD source and get Rick Park's latest album "Shakespeare and the Sonettes: The Bard's Blues." With the help of his friends Neil Young (the Canyon studio meister) and Donna Hyatt and Suzanne Fox (backup vocals - playfully named the Sonettes), Rick has put together an album that is historic in more than one way. Five of the songs are his own, in the unique style fans have known for decades, summarizing Shakespeare's tragedies (Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, King Lear, Othello, and Richard III) - but they are tales told by a master satirist full of fun and humor. The other five songs are oldies that are so golden they're mostly from the Bard's own time - the newest is Edwardian (practically hip-hop!). And all of course are bound together by Rick's unmistakably smooth guitar phrasing. Buy it now or be lost to the lessons of hysterical musical history!" Note: It was Nick who also reviewed Pavarotti Dreams tape in the Folknik newsletter, some 20 years ago.

See Gigs Page for upcoming appearances. For booking information: contact Rick by email, call him at 707-826-0357, or send mail to: 1000 7th Street #8, Arcata, CA 95521.

REVIEWS for THE SAD SONGS CONTEST:
A review of "The Sad Songs Contest" came from Rick's grad-school Milton teacher, a marvelously wry Harvard PhD named David Renaker: "The poems are very fine, and 'To An Athlete Dying Old' is magnificent - but get a new printer! The book is a Picasso in a packing crate."

Joel Dunsany emailed and wrote "I've been meaning to find a moment to e-mail you & tell you that your COLLECTED POEMS are simply A MARVEL. I couldn't have enjoyed them more! They are sparkling & shimmering. They are music. They are insightful & full of the stuff of life. Like they say about the astronauts, you've got the RIGHT STUFF!!!"

Rick Park has three poems in the 2005 published anthology by the poet Christa Laririt, "Erotica, Dreams, and the Personal Political". Rick's poems are "When the Hills Are Like Breasts I and II", and "Masochism #1". You can order a copy of the anthology for $6 plus postage at Calliope Books or directly from Rick. Please contact him by email, call him at 707-826-0357, or send mail to: 1000 7th Street #8, Arcata, CA 95521.

PAST EXHIBITIONS: Rick exhibited 4 of his sculptures on April 25, 2009 at Gist Hall Parking Lot at Humboldt State University. The four sculptures were accepted into the "Green Campus" exhibit of "Eco-Art", a part of Sustainable Living Arts & Music ("S.L.A.M.") Fest. See Art Page for descriptions of four exhibited pieces and photos of 2 of them.

Rick Park exhibited at Haight-Ashbury Library's "40 Summers of Love 'n Haight" Art Exhibit in 2007. Rick's painting, "Patriotic Toothbrushes" was displayed there and has since been sold.

Rick Park was an exhibiting artist, along with his landlady and friend, Joan Von Briesen, in the 2005 and 2006 Annual San Francisco Open Studios. He exhibited a half-dozen pieces of his at the home of Joan von Briesen.

Rick Park was part of SELF, an exhibition of self-portraits in the Claremont Forum Gallery in east Los Angeles in October 2005. They showed three of his pieces: "How To Draw Me", "Self as Rembrandt", and "Self as Emilio Estevez". These works are in graphite or cartoon format. 

Rick has displayed his paintings, drawings and sculpture at Claremont Forum Gallery in east Los Angeles, CA; Trinity County Arts Council Main Street Gallery in  Weaverville, CA; Matrix Gallery in Sacramento, CA; Arts Benicia in Benicia, CA; and at Ink People Center for the Arts in Eureka, CA. He was an exhibiting artist in the 2005 San Francisco Open Studios. He has also displayed some of his works at the Trinity County Fair in beautiful Hayfork, CA.

If you are interested in purchasing any of Rick Park's paintings, drawings, or sculptures, please contact him by email, call him at 707-826-0357, or send mail to: 1000 7th Street #8, Arcata, CA 95521.