Smoke Out The Window

Musician/songwriter Rick Monroe is no stranger to moving around, but he feels like it’s part of what makes his musical style unique. “I definitely come by a gypsy soul legitimately,” he told me recently.

He was born in Clearwater, FL, moved to England, moved back to Kansas, then Connecticut, North Carolina, and back to Florida, then L.A., and now he lives in Nashville, TN. He’s performed in 17 countries – and every state in the U.S. state except for Oregon.  He has opened for acts such as Eric Church, Dierks Bentley, Charlie Daniels Band, Dwight Yoakam, Montgomery Gentry, and Patty Loveless, just to name a few.

“As a kid, you do one of two things when you move around a lot like that,” he said. “You either become introverted, not knowing how to handle people, or you start to be the funny guy and the entertainer, and you find ways to ingratiate yourself to people by finding ways to entertain them, and I think that was a big part of my personality.

His family was always listening to music so it was an easy transition into adapting his personality into a music performer. “I got turned onto all kinds of stuff way early which ultimately had a lot of influence on me.”

Rick recalled actually being kicked out of his high school as a percussionist. “I just wasn’t that good as a drummer,” he quipped. “But then I started really getting into songwriting and that’s when I started to grow as a musician.”

Rick said it was after his move to Nashville 10 or 11 years ago when he began being able to live his life as a full time country music artist and song writer. “The sensibility of country music lyrics really shows the reality of life,” he said. “Pop music is fine, but it’s more like candy, good for a quick fix. But country, that’s more like your meat and potatoes.”

Rick’s latest record, Smoke Out The Window, is one he’s super proud of. “My producer JD Shuff said to me, ‘I believe if you put this record on in 15 years, it will still hold the quality of a cool-sounding record.’ That’s pretty cool,” Monroe mused.

To find out more, visit
www.rickmonroe.com