For all that he has accomplished musically over the past 30 years, it’s most strange to hear blues/roots guitarist and singer Rick Fines admit to needing proof he’s on the right track.
“There are still insecurities that come up and you ask ‘What are these people coming to see me for?'” says the Peterborough native.
“(Recently) I did a couple of concerts and I just felt like the audience was completely there. They listened to the stories and we were bouncing off of each other. I thought ‘I’m doing exactly what I want to do.’ As a musician, you do need validation and you need to balance that with something where it’s got little to do with you and you’re just simply the medium.”
If you too are looking to give Fines some musical validation, you only have a couple of chances to see him in the Kawarthas in the next couple of months.
He’ll be performing an “electric” show with his band as part of the fourth annual Kawartha Craft Beer Festival this weekend (from 3 to 4:30 p.m. on Saturday, June 9th) at Millennium Park in Peterborough. He’s also scheduled to perform a solo acoustic show at Kinmount’s Austin Sawmill Heritage Park at 6 p.m. on Thursday, July 12th.
“What a treat it is for me to be able to play with people I know and have loved for all my life,” says Fines who, for all his travelling across Canada performing and leading music workshops, is always thrilled to perform in his hometown.
“Aside from my sentimental attachment to the city, I can hop on my bicycle and, five minutes later, I’m out in the country. I can experience the four seasons here. There are parts of the country where you don’t get the fall colours like we do here. Swimming in the same lake you’re going to be skating on later. What a treat all of that has been and still is.”
VIDEO: “No Expectations” – Rick Fines
And what a treat Fines has been, and still is, for live music fans, not just locally but coast to coast to coast — initially for 15 years as a member of Juno Award-nominated Jackson Delta with band mates Gary Peeples and Alan Black and, since 2003, as a highly acclaimed solo act with several albums to his credit, the latest being 2015’s electric effort Driving Home.
“To stay alive in this business, you have to re-invent yourself all the time,” assesses Fines.
“I have a pile of notebooks of bits and pieces of ideas for songs. I wake every day eager to get to my guitar and work on some new ideas. Music has never stopped drawing me in, over and over again every single day. That’s what it’s about, that constant growth.”
“I suppose everybody, on some level, would like bits of their past back but at the same time nobody really wants to go back and be a teenager again. The great thing for me is I’ve made a living playing music with my friends and I still get to do that.”
Any recounting of Fines’ career has to include his staunch commitment to music education and empowering others, particularly young people, to push themselves to be all they can be.
He recently made his ninth trip to the Northwest Territories, working in a community there with Diga, a longtime friend and Indigenous musician best known for fronting Tlicho and English language band Digawolf.
“That has been very rewarding for me, whether I’m working with an adult guitar class or doing songwriting or arrangement and horn lines with students in a classroom setting,” says Fines.
“I think it’s very important to share the knowledge that we have and our insights. What I like to say, especially to younger students, is the more you express yourself in a way that you can then examine afterwards, that you can critique and that you can reflection, the better you’ll know yourself. That helps you grow and helps you understand yourself and you’re better prepared for the world.
“I play traditional instruments, guitar and other string instruments, but a lot of the music that younger people are hearing is more electronic and may have more to do with the computer than with hands-on playing of traditional instruments. There’s going to be somebody in that room who suddenly it occurs to them ‘Oh, I like that.’ Maybe they come from a household where they’re not being told expressing themselves is important or they’re not hearing that somewhere else, so maybe I can be that person.”
Just back from western Canada where he performed a series of solo shows — an annual trek that includes teaching and performing at the Hornby Island Blues Workshop in British Columbia — Fines says his excitement lies in reuniting with friends he hasn’t seen since his last trip west.
As well as performing at his upcoming shows in the Kawarthas, Fines also enjoys being back home as he can spend more time with his wife Lise and their daughter Claire, who turns six this month.
“She now understands a little better that daddy has to go away to work and I have to pour on the steam and pay my mortgage,” says Fines, noting a trip to Newfoundland is also planned, where he and Lise will celebrate their 20th wedding anniversary.
Still, as has been case for the past three decades, music will never stray far from Fines’ mind.
“I’m writing and rehearsing for a new album … I hope to have it out by Christmas if not then, early next year,” says Fines.
“The thing that got me started on this was I’ve been crazy about playing slide guitar, so I thought ‘You know what? I always record one or two cuts with that instrument on it. Why not make an entire album of that?’ Into the writing I realize that not everything is going to be on those instruments, so it’s going to be more of an acoustic album.
“I make my money travelling solo, duo and trio for the most part. It’s just too expensive to tour a five-piece band. Because that’s what people see, it’s what they want to buy when they buy your product at the end of a concert. I kind of got my ya-yas out with my electric project (Driving Home). Now it’s back to what I’m known for.”
Whether playing electric or acoustic, or leading a workshop or a classroom session, Fines remains grateful to have been able to make a living doing what he loves.
“The truth is so many people enter into the music business with stars in their eyes and a goal of making it,” he says.
“Truth is the music business, sooner or later, will disappoint everybody and quite often regularly. However, music never disappoints, and if you remember what you’re in it for, then there’s a lifetime to be happy and celebrate that.”
“I certainly don’t have any plans to change careers. I love it but if it ever gets to the point where I’m not, then I’m sure there’s another path. I don’t want to ever find myself feeling embarrassed getting up in front of people and not being what they deserve.”
VIDEO: “Ridin’ The Rails” – Rick Fines
