Artist sketch provided by
Kenn Boostrom

RICK FETTERS - A SHORT BIOGRAPHY


This musical journey began, by chance, at the Enoch Pratt Free Library’s central library in Baltimore, Md. in the early ‘60’s. Tucked away, it seemed at the time, in this four story tall, two city blocks long, one city block wide granite building was the, spoken in hushed tones, ‘music room’. Finding myself, in what today would be called the ‘folk music’ section, I began spending Saturday afternoons listening to the recordings of Woody Guthrie, Cisco Houston, Leadbelly, Elizabeth Cotton, The Weavers, Burl Ives, Pete Seeger, etc. I realized that music is such a universal language. It is a ‘voice of the people’. Bought an old guitar and started learning to play. As they say, ‘I’ve been buyin’ and learnin’ ever since’!

It’s been a long train ride. Met many wonderful and talented people along the way and a few inspiring mentors who taught me the art of songwriting and the art of performing. Spent precious moments in the Village in NYC, performed at anti-war movement demonstrations, college campuses and the coffeehouse circuit. Yet it was the Civil Rights Movement that became the glue that held all of the disparate lessons together. Performing in churches, meeting rooms and demonstrations made me realize even more that music is the voice of the people. Speaking out for freedom, justice and equality was going to be hard, but necessary, work.

My music is a dialogue, a conversation between my audiences and myself. On the surface, yes, it is one view of life. Underneath, however, lies a commonality of life experiences. From that point we share a rainbow of emotions that flow from our respective hearts and souls. The hope of my music is that it gives you the opportunity to discover how much we share in common amongst all of our diversity. Music lets us realize that not only can we laugh and cry together, but, we can actually talk with one another!

Peace.