Rick Toothman

            I have loved music for as long as I can remember.  Ever since I got my first AM radio as a child, I’ve been captivated by it.  I don’t mean the typical enjoyment of popular songs.  I mean I love music with a passion.  My dad had a country and western band and I used to love to go to his gigs with him.  He passed away when I was 10, so I didn’t get the chance to learn from him which was a shame, because he was a very good musician.  When I was about 11 years old, I started to learn guitar.  My older brother taught me my first chords (starting with Last Kiss and then on to the old standby House of the Rising Sun).  I was envious when my brother started his first (and only) band.  When he graduated from high school and left home for college and then the navy, I followed on his heels with a band of my own.  That first band was never anything but a garage band and we never played any gigs, but I was hooked.

When I was 16, I was invited to fill in for a band whose guitarist couldn’t make the gig.  It was my first audition and I was also invited to become a member of that band.  That band became known as Sound Cellar and we played a variety of music from country and western to jazz rock.  We had a brass section in addition to the obligatory keyboard, bass, guitars and percussion.  I was blessed to be a part of this band that included Joe, James and John Brandesky, Steven and Paul Raabe and Sherry Pearce.  These folks showed me how to think outside the box of contemporary top 40 bands and to introduce to our audiences not-so-mainstream music selections.  We played music from Hank Williams to Chicago to Doobie Brothers to Grand Funk Railroad.  It was during this time that my ambitions to become a song writer were born.

I played with Sound Cellar for 6 years.  Toward the end of that time, I met my soon to be wife, Jackie, and got married.  The other guys (Sherry had left us after a couple of years) decided it was time to disband and go our separate ways.  I wanted desperately to start another band in order to achieve fulfillment from performing music and also to start writing.  When that didn’t materialize and my wife became pregnant, I knew I had to do something to provide for my growing family.  I made the only decision I thought was available to me.  I joined the U.S. Navy.  Don’t get me wrong because the Navy was a tremendous learning experience and I became a Christian, but the frequent separations due to deployments and the low wages I was earning was not conducive to a healthy marriage.  The fact that we are still married 30 years later is a testament to Jackie more than me.  While I was in the Navy, I began to write songs.  My first song was To My Inamorata (© 1979) and as you may guess, it was written for my long suffering wife.

            Granted, I’m what you should consider a rank amateur, but my music has some sort of inspiration in its roots.  My first few songs were inspired by wanting to give my wife something for gift giving occasions and not being able to afford anything but songs.  You know…like kids giving their parents drawings.  Perhaps my earliest songs resembled some of those primitive quality drawings, but they also contained the same love kids have for their parents.

            As I wrote more, I like to think I also improved.  Thankfully, I understand that not everyone may have the same opinion.  That’s ok, too.  My music still reflects the inspirations that influenced its creation.  From simple love songs at first to the Christian based music I write today.

            Today, I still love to perform, but I get my fulfillment from playing in the praise band at my church.  In order to support my family, which includes my wife, Jackie, my son, Rick, Jr., and my daughter, Emily, I am gainfully employed as an electronics technician servicing nuclear medicine diagnostic equipment.  While I enjoy my occupation, I find that I have a stronger desire to write and continue to focus my talents in that venue.  To date, I have written some 20 songs (probably more actually, but I have lost some and forgotten others).  I am once again inspired to begin writing and, with God’s blessing, will greatly increase that number of songs.  It is my desire to share those songs and any others that have yet to come with you.

            Thanks for taking an interest.