Where Appalachia meets Woodstock

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Deep in the hills of Appalachia’s Piedmont region, years before music was ever recorded, the voices of the singers and storytellers echoed over the mountains, meadows, and hollers. For generations this musical tradition was handed down as it spread throughout the land. With technological advances, the once hidden songs and stories became a part of the fabric of America.

 

Enter Wild Mountain Mystics, a Southern California duo whose music carries the spirit of the front porch tradition of the artisans, buskers, and troubadours of those times.​ But they have leaned into their talents, determined to share the musical treasures they’ve found that include a universal love for all music and the power of its healing energy.

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Wild Mountain Mystics are among the finest Americana-roots music duos out today. Author & music journalist, Paul Zollo says it best: “Say the name Wild Mountain Mystics anywhere that musicians and music lovers congregate, and warm, knowing smiles invariably abound. It’s because it conjures up the infectious spirit of real-time joy which lives in their music and transforms their shows into celebrations.”

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Wild Mountain Mystics are Rick & Lisa. Since 2013, they have been a sought-after presence on the Cailfornia roots music scene. Their audience includes skilled instrumentalists, hipsters, and enthusiastic music lovers, both young and old, across the generational divide. Their audiences are collectively charmed by the joyful spirit and the remarkable diversity of their music.

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Their life experience and talent have been faithfully captured on their debut release, Fire & Honey. The album was produced by Ed Tree and Wild Mountain Mystics, and is being released in 2024 by L.A.’s new Americana-roots champions, Blackbird Record Label.  The album is a warm blend of folk, rock, country, and blues, filled with fine songcraft, instrumental distinction, and front-porch intimacy that engages as it inspires in a way that echoes the best of Appalachian folk informed by Woodstock Nation-inspired classic rock.

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The first single from the album is “If You Can Bluff,” a rowdy good timin’ Piedmont style blues song with a strong mountain country flavor. With tight vocal harmonies between Lisa & Rick, the song’s message is one of hope and faith in a life that comes around when we "feel our way to the light of day" and we "find the truth in forbidden fruit."   After all, the song maintains, “no matter what your hand, if you can bluff you ain’t lost yet.”    

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 According to veteran singer-songwriter Steve Noonan, (The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band classic “Buy for Me the Rain”):  “In my 58 years of performing - and my many years of inviting friends to join me on stage - these two were my finest discovery.  No one else even came close."

 

The duo’s love of music is a passionate, luminous spirit that is alive in every song and shines with joy enough to bring a smile to your face and a dance step to your feet.  They are two gifted songwriters, vocalists, and multi-instrumentalists, and have opened for artists as diverse as A.J. Croce, David Lindley, Joel Rafael, and Frankie Avalon.

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Wild Mountain Mystics’ story is about native Californians whose talents emerged from diverse musical backgrounds. The songs flow between them with a chemistry that is wildly organic as they open the listener to the heart of their music.

Lisa has been immersed in music throughout her life. She has walked a rainbow’s arc of experience from concert stages to dark Gypsy taverns.

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In childhood, her mother poured a love of the artistry and joy of music into her 12 children.  From this early experience, Lisa grew into a gifted vocalist and an accomplished instrumentalist on guitar, mandolin, bass, violin, and piano, as well as a variety of ethnic instruments including the tamburitza family. She also plays bandura, folk harp, recorder, frula, tin whistle, and a variety of other instruments.

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She performed internationally with orchestras, earned degrees in music, and grew into a teacher, conductor, opera singer, and classical choral composer. She has a breadth of experience that has found her jamming with a wide variety of musicians, from multiple genres. She has also performed at the Hollywood Bowl as a choral vocalist for The Chieftans, as well as for the Olympic Arts Festival, under the direction of Christopher Hogwood. With her discipline and experience grew a gentle grace and passionate love for all genres of music.   

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Rick’s musically driven spiritual story has been about the calling of a journeyman and explorer of America’s musical & cultural terrain. Rick was born in San Diego and raised in Lakewood, Santa Maria, and Buena Park, California. He recalls the subtle influence of his grandmother, whose roots were in the mountains of West Virginia. She brought a down-to-earth sensibility to his childhood. Musically, Hank Williams and the Beatles were the other great influences of his early years and beyond. He learned to play drums at an early age and played in the orchestra and marching band throughout junior high and high school. In junior high he learned to play guitar and piano. This led him to experience playing in various local bands.

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His musical journey continued into adulthood with an interlude of eight years in the U.S. Navy. During his time of service, he continued to write songs and play guitar. It was while out at sea that he learned to fix broken guitar strings, a practice he continued for years. 

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Following his discharge, he resumed playing drums and guitar in a series of groups, including a country rock band, Full Throttle, whose drummer, Freddie Edwards (Charlie Daniels Band) described Rick as “the best guitarist I’ve ever played with.”  While a member of a Monrovia jam band, Shantytown, he met Lisa, which led to the birth of Wild Mountain Mystics. The rest of the story of Wild Mountain Mystics is still unfolding through their tangible musical unity and celebration. With the upcoming release of Fire & Honey, and the single, “If You Can Bluff,” they continue to write the story of their journey into the soul of American music.