Our Story
Rick Drost, a Singer/Songwriter from Cambridge, MA, has been writing songs since the late '60s with depth and heart: songs that repay repeated listening and convey a long love of classical music, natural wonders, poetry.
Rick has sung in small and large choruses and small acoustic folk groups, but since the early 2000s has been singing solo at open mikes, small clubs and coffeehouses, galleries and listening rooms in New England, the Midwest and the Southeast.
Since retiring in 2015 from a career as a software engineer, Rick is happily expanding the time he can spend listening, reading, writing, and traveling around singing in small venues and festivals.
Rick's first solo album of his songs, "Turning the World", produced and recorded by Jon Shain and FJ Ventre of Durham, NC, was released in June 2017. Thanks to all the musicians who contributed so thoughtfully to the treatment of these songs- Jon and FJ on strings and basses, Kaitlin Grady on cello, Bill Newton on harmonica and soprano sax, Chris Frank on accordion, Ed Butler on percussion, all in NC, and composer/pianist Doug Hammer in Lynn MA on piano.
"[a] magical singer/songwriter" - Kaylyn Marie
"a songwriter's/songwriter" - Chicago Mike Beck
"Those of us who write songs count ourselves lucky when we can craft one like one of Rick’s. Each song paints a picture of another little world for the listener to play in for a few minutes."
-- Vance Gilbert
On Rick's song, "Turning the World":
I loved learning this song. I want the song to teach me what it knows. I want to see the world through the eyes of this song. Like a skilled tracker looks carefully and walks slowly, and finds out more by combining the little clues, I want to let myself dream about where this song is coming from and where it is going. I want to know what it had for breakfast….. -- David Wilcox
"Rick comes with an authenticity that other more well known songwriters need to fake and it comes across in his live playing" -- Johnny Steinberg - Abbey Records, Norwich, Norfolk, UK
"Rick Drost lives inside the music and inside the song with every cell of his body. He honors the power of music and serves it well." -- Corky Siegel - Chicago
Rick grew up playing classical piano in a musical family outside Buffalo, NY. He discovered a love of poetry (Shakespeare, Gerard Manley Hopkins) in high school, and played banjo in a Kingston Trio style group. In college he sang with Glee Clubs, and a small folk group. Early influences were Leonard Cohen, who sang under the stars at the Mariposa Folk festival in '67. and Joni Mitchell in '68, who inspired him with her lyrics and alternate tunings. Since college, Rick has sung and toured internationally in small and large choruses, (Spectrum singers, Yale Alumni Chorus), And in the US as a solo songwriter and in small acoustic folk groups. Since the early 2000s he has been writing again and singing mostly solo at open mikes, small clubs and coffeehouses, galleries and listening rooms in the vibrant folk communities in New England, the Midwest and the Southeast, singing at workshops like SAMW, Song School in Colorado, and Folk Alliance. His songs treat life from a varied angles - Jilted lovers, Swans in the Public Garden, Leftover Lobsters, and meditations on meditation. Recent influences, avatars really, include Vance Gilbert and David Wilcox, who has added Rick's song "Turning the World" to his setlist.