biography

Born in Boston, Massachusetts, and also having lived in Atlanta, GA, Los Angeles, CA, and New York City, Rick currently lives in St. Paul, Minnesota. Rick began playing the guitar at age 11 and was playing professionally at age 15, and teaching professionally at age 16. Rick has played over 3,000 Rock, Blues, Jazz and Funk gigs throughout parts of the US, Mexico, the Caribbean and Cuba over the last 27 years for crowds of up to 10,000 people.

A Graduate of Musicians Institute, Hollywood, CA., Rick has studied with Paul Gilbert (Racer X, Mr. Big, solo), Jennifer Batten (Michael Jackson, Jeff Beck), Mike Ward (The Wallflowers, Ben Harper, John Hiatt, School of Fish), Scott Henderson (Tribal Tech, solo), Nick Nolan, Norman Brown, Paul Hanson, Russ Parish (Fight), Bruce Bouillett (Racer X), Gary Hoey, Steve Trovato, and Keith Wyatt. Outside of Musicians Institute, Rick has continued his studying with Iconoclastic Guitarist David "FuZe" Fiuczynski (Screaming Headless Torsos, KiF, Hiromi, solo).

Rick Stack's music is a distinctive and exciting blend of Jazz, Rock, and Funk with influences from Indian, Middle Eastern, and Latin music. The resulting sound transports the listener with intoxicating grooves, unique compositions, and melodic and passionate guitar playing. Rick's debut solo album Reconstruction features 12 new songs written, arranged and produced by Stack.

The musicians featured on Reconstruction include his regular trio mates, Ryan Butler on Bass and Alec Tackmann on Drums. Ryan is a graduate of Berklee College of Music, Cum Laude and has studied with Matthew Garrison, Oscar Stagnaro, Anthony Vitti and Whit Brown. Alec Tackmann graduated from Berklee College of Music, Cum Laude, and has studied with such noted drummers as Terri Lyne Carrington, Rick Considine, Mike Mangini and Kenny Aronoff. Percussionist Marc Anderson is a four time Minnesota Music Award winner and a long time collaborator with guitarist Steve Tibbetts. Marc has also toured and/or recorded with artists such as Taj Mahal, Max Roach, Robert Fripp, Choying Drolma, and the Minnesota Orchestra. Jazz Pianist Dan Mussleman holds a Bachelors Degree in Piano Performance from McNally Smith College of Music, and has studied with Craig Taborn and Kenny Werner. Dan can be frequently found playing with his own Quartet at Twin Cities Jazz clubs such as the Artists Quarter and The Dakota. On Violin is NYC based Josh Henderson and Indian Classical Musician Payel Kundu. Tallin Banerjee, a North Indian Classical Singer contributed vocals to the album. Tallin has studied Hindustani Classical Music from Mr. D.K Chatterjee and Dr. Asha Parasnis.

Rick Stack is also the owner of St. Paul Guitar Studio, a guitar lesson studio located in downtown St. Paul, Minnesota. St. Paul Guitar Studio is a music lesson facility specializing in Guitar Lessons located in an 1,100 square foot loft space in the Northern Warehouse building in downtown St. Paul. St. Paul Guitar Studio currently has 15 guitar instructors who teach in styles such as Rock, Blues, Resophonic Slide Guitar, Jazz, Classical, Flamenco, Finger-style Acoustic, R&B, Funk, Latin, Bluegrass and Rockabilly. Rick is one of the instructors, and has taught over 60,000 private guitar lessons, averaging 50 students a week for 26 years. Rick has plans to open up Minneapolis Guitar Studio in the Fall of 2011.