User:Steinerrw/sandbox

Rick Steiner From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Rick Steiner

Background information Born	       1958 Origin	       Oakland, Calif, US

Website	       www.almostasong.net

Rick Steiner (born 1958) is a contemporary Old-time Appalachian/Irish musician. He is self taught in the arts of music and the use of dye-on-canvas paintings.

Rick got his first taste of Old-time music from the Ivydale and Pipestem festivals in the late 60's and early 70's. He enjoyed playing guitar in the parking lot jams and became acquainted with the various types of "Old-time" music and it's many styles. He was first given a banjo to try by Jenes Cottrell who his family would visit back in the hollars of Clay County, WV. He showed him the two finger rolling style that was one of the old old-time styles of playing a banjo. Different than the clawhammer or three finger styles that were introduced later. That two finger roll style became his choice for both the banjo and guitar due to an accident with his strumming hand and has become a powerful style which the old timers enjoy. Many fiddlers and banjo players say that that was the way they learned or had played with back when they firs started performing. His influences are musician like David Morris, Alan Freeman and Tom King and had the opportunities to perform with them over the years. He played the coffee houses after a tour in the Navy in the early 80's and has enjoyed playing ever since. Currently he is playing with an old-time/irish band out of Fairmont, WV called "Almost a Song" which is becoming one of the area powerful old-time bands. If it has strings, give him an hour and he'll figure out how to play it.

His is a self taught artist as well and his artwork has varied over the years but has settled into doing dye-on-canvas paintings and colonial style rugs. He has taught seminars at Jackson's Mill for the The Association for Living History, Farm and Agricultural Museum conference and continues to expand the dye art in with other mediums. Has won top armature awards at the SC State fairs for works using cat-5 Ethernet cable in a similar style as the sweet-grass basket makers from the coastal regions of SC.

His talents are not limited to music and art as he is an award winning photographer, noted for his work from the late 60's and 70's of "Old-time" musicians and writing of papers published for the University of Arizona's Center for Conscience Studies on the topic of DNA and Memory in 2008.