Subscribe to Rick's Spirit-Building ARISE, grab some great FREE gifts and begin to
"E-chieve"!

Hopefully you arrived at this page wanting to hear a little music!

You may not know this about me, but in my pre-Internet life, I had a pretty good career going as a songwriter (drycleaner too:-)  and then later, as a songwriter/producer. A very nasty divorce put a "temporary" end to all that. 

Music is my first love and my life passion. I very much want to share with you some of the music I created and invite you to download the songs below. As with all labors of love, there are usually many people involved and I will give credit to those who were principally responsible for these tracks.

First though, as you may have already heard, MP3 is the "new frontier" of accessing music, so I encourage you to download for FREE the best "player" (if you don't already have an MP3 player) first by clicking  here.  

As these downloads do take a little while, I invite you to read some of the articles I have written while waiting. But don't forget to come back:-)

Barbara Payton

In 1991, a close friend of mine "recommended" I go hear this friend of hers who sang in a popular Detroit Top 40 band. Well, invites like this came all too often (after all, almost everyone can sing,  right?:-) but I decided to use this as an excuse to just spend time with this friend. Well, within 30 seconds into the first set, I was completely blown away by the power and personna of  Barbara Payton. I had just sold my drycleaning business and was setting up my new career and music company, and Barbara quickly became an integral part of the process.  Four years (and many demos) later, I wrote and produced Barbara's debut album "Walk on Water", which enjoyed strong nationwide airplay (and charts) and rave critical reviews ( a few bad ones too:-).

The following track, "Walk on Water", is the one which many people thought was Barbara's "hit" single. We released this single in Canada in 1996 and voila, it made a major impact immediately. Now, consistent airplay in the likes of large cities such as Toronto still exists today (in 1999) for:

Walk on Water/MP3
view lyrics to all songs in a pop-up window

This next track, "Lover Like You", was the very first song I penned for Barbara. For some strange reason, it was written within minutes, and not the usual hours/days/months of laboring over a song. It felt like it was the perfect song, and sentiment, for her as a person, and,  for that HUGE voice.  Many people feel that this is "Barbara's Song":

I risk exposing myself here perhaps more than "netiquette" would dictate, but "Mister",  from Barbara's CD reveals an honest exploration into the subject of child abuse and molestation. Although this song would probably never be destined to be a "single", it received impressive radio play with those stations willing to "tell it like it is":

Mister/MP3
view lyrics to all songs in a pop-up window

It is my hope that you will get a feeling of serenity while listening to the closing track from Barbara's album called  . . .

Take Me to the Mountains/MP3
view lyrics to all songs in a pop-up window

Ignasius

Just after the release of Barbara's "Walk on Water", into the studio walks this young, long curly haired Italian singer/songwriter named Ignazio. He had recorded a few demos and I immediately recognized the raw talent of who we later called "Ignasius" (his name in English). We worked intensely for a few months, re-writing his songs and writing new material for what would become his self-titled album. "Ignasius" was released in 1997 and received much national acclaim. Allow me to introduce one of the songs we wrote together called:

Born to Die in Your Arms/MP3
view lyrics to all songs in a pop-up window

Here's a track from "Ignasius" that I had a whole lotta fun producing in the studio. Feel free to:

Rise Up!/MP3
view lyrics to all songs in a pop-up window

The last song from this album is one I contributed called: 

Just Like You/MP3
view lyrics to all songs in a pop-up window

My last studio project was a collage CD of  various artists I had the pleasure to have worked with. I would love for you to hear just a couple of these talented vocalists.

The first two tracks are by a wonderful female performer from London, Cheryl Hardy. Feel free to dance to the first one:-)

I Just Wanna Shout About It/MP3
view lyrics to all songs in a pop-up window

Just Pretend/MP3
view lyrics to all songs in a pop-up window

Next, is a talented Detroit vocalist named Ping Parks and this is a jazzier cut entitled: 

Way Too Cool/MP3
view lyrics to all songs in a pop-up window

Lastly, from this collection, feel free to guess "who" among the above vocalists sings:

Dangerous/MP3
view lyrics to all songs in a pop-up window

For Teens Only!!

Definitely for young ears, this is CD EP I engineered for a whacked-out duo called Smooth Maxx. Got to be a kid again working with these guys. A  lot of strange studio effects, so pass  
Hot Wax on to your teenagers.

Home | Solutions | Feature Product | Feature Resource | Creative | Coaching | Music | Gifts | Personal | Giving Back | Contact | Privacy