Rick Lee (1941-2014)

By Bob Franke

Local 1000 brother Rick Lee was a superb keyboard artist and a banjo player in the old timey style, a scholar of folk and country musics, and an amazingly soulful singer and songwriter who performed in venues around the English-speaking world. I tell my songwriting students that part of their job as artists is to point out and champion good songs wherever they find them; this kind of generosity is too rare, but it was a hallmark of Rick’s art. He learned and sang songs regardless of their origin or what style they were in. He played them well, and made them his own, leaving a small but beautiful recorded legacy and many memories of wonderfully eclectic jam sessions. He valued songs by their ability to tell the truth about, and to touch, the human heart. He was a longtime friend, and a longtime supporter of the music of many of his songwriting friends, including mine. Because of this generosity and the positive effect it had on many of our lives, the silence left by his passing is only a rest in a Rick Lee composition that is still being created.