Rick Price

澳洲情歌王子Rick Price (瑞克普莱斯),1960年出生澳洲的Beaudesert，「Heaven Knows」是他在澳洲发行的第二支单曲，这首歌在澳洲大获全，并於当地排行榜待上超过一年的时间。「Heaven Knows」在一年之间席卷全球乐坛，包括了一向难以取悦的老美及加拿大等地，当然，一直很爱听抒情歌的亚洲地区更是无法抗拒Rick Price的魅力。
RICK PRICE possesses one of the most celebrated and soulful voices in contemporary Australian music. In a wonderfully diverse and successful recording career now spanning almost two decades, the inspiration for the singer/songwriter’s new album, REVISTED, could not have come more clearly or directly.
By popular and constant request from his most loyal fans, REVISITED sees Rick revisiting and recasting the best loved songs of his career, including all his classic hit singles – “Not A Day Goes By”, “Heaven Knows [which was voted 1992’s APRA song of the year by Australian songwriters]”, “Walk Away Renee”, “River Of Love” and many more.
“Whenever I go out and do an acoustic show, without fail, people will say to me, ‘When are you going to make an acoustic record?’” Rick explains. “So really, this was borne out of requests from people asking me to do it. That was the inspiration behind it, to give people a different look at the songs because when you listen to the old recorded versions, they were done 15 to 18 years ago, they are very different to how I sing and perform them today.”
Of course, those old recorded versions of Rick’s greatest hits have taken on a life of their own – mainstays of modern-day mainstream Australian radio. Hardly a day goes by where Rick’s voice isn’t heard coming out of a radio somewhere in Australia, as well as across Asia.
But since his pop idol days in the 1990s, Rick Price has forged himself a successful career not only as a great recording artist, but also as a true musical troubadour – a multi-instrumentalist, a producer, a man and his songs on an endless tour.
Most recently out of the studio, several of Rick’s recordings appeared in the highly-touted Australian film, December Boys [starring Harry Potter’s Daniel Radcliffe], including one of Rick’s new compositions, “Nobody Knows My Name” [sung by Mitch Grainger], which was the movie’s featured track.
Away from his studio work, Rick has always performed live as much as possible. As a travelling troubadour, he’s established a loyal live following right across Australia, performing either with a band or more often solo.
When the time finally came to record this acoustic record, Rick knew he didn’t want to simply recreate the solo live show, sitting behind a microphone accompanied only by his guitar and voice. Rick decided he’d flesh out the arrangements, take this rare opportunity to completely breathe new life into the instrumentation of a dozen of the most important songs of his career.
Rick plays every instrument you hear on Revisited, aside from a couple of guest performances from mates Clayton Doley playing Hammond organ on “Tenterfield Saddler” [a remake of Rick’s unforgettable tribute to Peter Allen] and Daniel Conway on nylon string guitar and harmony in “Church On Fire”. Rick also recorded and self-produced the album in his own recording studio, Barry Street Studios in Sydney, and is releasing Revisted through his own label, Clarice Records, named in honour of his mother.
Picking the track-list for Revisted, that was easy. “These are the most requested songs at my shows and the most popular songs that I’ve recorded or/and written myself,” Rick says. “I thought it was important to do that rather than go off on too much of a tangent. Although I made this record primarily for myself, I want it to be a record for people familiar with my music, to anyone who has had a kind word to say or paid some attention to me or my music over the years. I wanted them to be able to buy this record and know their favourite songs are on it.”
Rick says that, ironically, the way we hear the songs on Revisted is much closer to the way they sounded when they were first written all those years ago, personally reminding Rick of the days he used to spend sitting on his back porch with a guitar, quietly singing to himself.
“When I listen back to my original recordings, the keys are so high, to me it’s difficult to listen to,” Rick confesses with a laugh. “This record to me is really just about wanting to perform the songs in a very chilled-out, relaxed way. I’m very interested in keeping it simple and pleasurable. That’s where I’m at right now.”
Rick has put together an all-new band to take these new acoustic arrangements of his songs back into the live circuit. No doubt his most loyal fans will be glad to finally hear what they’ve been requesting for so long.
But Revisited will also reintroduce Rick Price to a whole new audience of Australian music fans, revealing him as a gifted contemporary artist, musician and songwriter – a genuine musical troubadour.