RICK NOLAND

Singer/guitarist Rick Noland picked up a guitar at age five and has seldom put it down. He has been giving solo concerts since Wayzata High School days. He gave up academic goals at Bowdoin College in Maine after three years to become a top solo entertainer in the late '70s and '80s in Twin Cities clubs—Lord Fletcher's, the Copper Hearth, Gregory's, Camelot, the Irish Elephant, the Oz, and others. He brought out his first CD of original songs, "The Road Back Home" in 1995, with his sister, Mimi, singing harmonies—showcased at the Fine Line on its release. He has also released a two-CD set, “Live at the Copper Hearth,” and in 2011 “Twelve on Twelve” (twelve songs on a twelve-string guitar). Always caught in a tug between academia and a music career, he leaned into a degree in music (with emphasis on music therapy) from Augsburg College and graduated in 2012. With the campus and commute behind him, he now is free to do what he loves most: singing and playing guitar (piano too) for audiences small and larger, writing and recording songs,  and—with his background in music therapy— improving quality of life for special populations through music. While a student, he has been a Park Nicollet spiritual care volunteer and has played at Methodist hospital for stroke survivors and at Struthers Parkinson Center for ten years.

 Rick Noland, with his streel-trap memory of some 300 songs, has been called the best one-man interpreter of classics from the ‘70s and ‘80s: (Cat Stevens, James Taylor, Dan Fogelberg, Jackson Browne, the Grateful Dead, Emerson, Lake and, Palmer—on and on.  Recognized by fellow musicians as an accomplished and intricate guitarist, he is known to make a solo voice and acoustic guitar sound like an entire band. Always billed as a “variety act”— he shifts with ease from an intimate ballad to high-energy rock or blues, with country, jazz, bossa nova, gospel, and folk thrown in.  Not only an interpretor of the greats, he opens his heart in his own songs—again, in a variety of styles. He really knows his way around an acoustic guitar, accompanied by a strong voice that one local entertainer described as “ridiculously on key” (a standard not easy to maintain!) Solo or duo with his sister, Mimi Noland, Rick performs a unique blend of energetic and heartfelt songs, classics and originals. 

 Rick’s latest CD, “Twelve on Twelve,” released in 2011, is the result of his rediscovery of a twelve-string Guild like the one he played in high school, which brought all those songs back to him from the glory days of popular music: the British-Invasion, mellow ballads, and the resurgence of folk. He is known by his fellow musicians as one of the most accomplished and intricate guitarists in the area and perhaps the best solo interpreter today of great songs from the ‘70s and ‘80s.  According to Rick’s friends and fans: “Nobody does it better!” “Twelve on Twelve” was recorded and produced by Benny Weinbeck, renowned jazz pianist and all-around musician and technician.

 Rick Noland is also an antiques dealer, specializing in advertising and pre-1940 cast iron and pressed steel toys.

 Rick’s music is available through CD Baby and from Blue Zoo Music, P.O. Box 817, Long Lake, MN  55356. Also check out Rick Noland on You Tube.