Rick Furst

RICK FURST BIO
Rick Furst comes from a show biz family with many generations of distinguished if not famous songwriters and musicians, including a hit songwriting, big-band leading grandfather whose songs made hits also for such greats as Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra and Sarah Vaughan. His maternal uncle conducted the original cast of the hit Broadway musical Man of La Mancha. A child prodigy, Rick was just 12 when he started performing professionally, in a variety of styles (including rock, folk, Classical and jazz) and on a variety of instruments (including electric and acoustic guitar, keyboards and French horn), and he won many awards for competitive performances and compositions. He's been written up by hundreds of publications and appeared on hundreds of TV and radio shows, nationwide and has performed more than 10,000 gigs coast-to-coast and written more than 1,000 popular songs. He performed for years as a duo with his late wife, in "Silver 'N Spruce," and re-launched his career after her passing as a solo artist known as Rick Furst (his great-grandmother's maiden name). Since losing her several years ago, he's written more than 450 songs and recorded four albums of original music and independent Singles releases as well, including his popular original songs, "Remember the Alamo," "To Be A Freedom Fighter (A Song for the Ukraine)," "My Dear Friend" (a life-affirming suicide prevention song), "Enough's Enough" (an homage to the victims of the Uvalde massacre and of violent crimes everywhere), "The Texas Waltz" (an old-timey homage to 1940s-era Country Swing), "Down To Austin" (an homage to Austin's musical heritage), "For Uncle Michael (The Memorial Day Song)" (dedicated to lost heroes and their Gold Star Families), "Didn't We Have Some Kinda Time" (a fun, nostalgic homage to Elvis and Fats Domino) and "Isn't It Funny (The Way Things Change)." Aside from his own performing and songwriting career, he's been a music director and record producer for others including, most recently BB King's cousin King V, with whom he recorded his song "The Lord Is Gonna Kill The Devil" (an October 2022 Singles release) - in which he sings a duet and swaps guitar solos with King V. Recent collaborations with major Austin artists also include his Fall 2022 album release, "For Love and Freedom," featuring fiddle great Warren Hood, and his Winter 2022 release (as yet untitled) featuring sax great Tony Bray. In between those releases is Rick's 10-song Covid-delayed album release, "The Riddle," which features local musicians such as the talented Chris Doege on drums and, on one cut, fiddler Olly Rogoff. Incredibly enough, Rick sings and plays most other instruments on his recordings - including electric and acoustic guitars, Requinto, acoustic piano, keyboards, organ, electric bass and various percussion instruments.