About
A primarily self-taught guitar virtuoso who has been referred to as "extremely expressive and well versed with this instrument like it was a second language". Rich received his first guitar when 8 years old and had his first formal guitar lessons at 12. Due to the cost of lessons he only had 3 lessons at that time and "never made it past the first 3 strings in the open position" in the Guitar Method book his lessons were based on. At that time there was no internet and nothing like YouTube to pickup information from so he initially learned how to play by ear by trying to emulate what he heard on records and by trying to pickup whatever tips he could from other guitar players. His music of choice at that time was Hard Rock and Heavy Metal, so that is where his attention and repertoire were focused.
Fast forward several years and he met, and later married, a trained classical pianist that changed his focus and music starting a path to where he is today. As he introduced her to the heavier side of the spectrum with artists like Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, and Guns & Roses; she brought him into her world with the works of Bach, Brahms, Chopin, etc. This is when he started playing more nylon stringed acoustic guitar and teaching himself how to read music. Combining that with time spent in Central and South America, along with his travels throughout Europe, his music has morphed into the blend of World Music that he plays today.