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Friday, June 24,
2005
GAY singer-songwriter Mike Rickard is a man on a
mission to reach new fans. He performs at the Atlanta
Pride festival for the first time this weekend and at
Red Light Café on June 28.
“Stirred Not Shaken” is Rickard’s debut collection of
11 melancholy songs that movingly probe into themes of
love and faith. It is available through several online
music sites.
“I think my music and my writing, even when I don’t
address [being gay] very much, come from the perspective
of being a gay man,” Rickard says.
The CD kicks off with the slightly up-tempo track
“Lucky,” in which Rickard finds himself at peace after a
lifetime of unhappiness.
“And I feel peace / Like I’ve never known, / I’m
happy where I am / I’ve come into my own.”
Following the optimistic opening tune, the majority
of “Stirred” goes downbeat. Listeners must dig in their
heels and be patient with the CD’s restrained pace in
order to discover Rickard’s observations on
relationships gleaned from a life in search of personal
authenticity.
In “Everything You Need,” Rickard sings “When you’re
feeling strong / I’ll let you lead the way / But if you
ever fall behind / I’m gonna bide my time and wait.”
“Even though it’s not spelled out as being gay, it
deals with the push and pull of a relationship, the
times you need to be there for the other person, and the
times you also need to give it up and let somebody be
there for you,” Rickard says.
Rickard says the gay sensibility of songs including
“Everything You Need” and the dance-tinged “Natural”
should find a special place in listeners’ hearts.
When Rickard moved to Atlanta from Augusta, Ga. 11
years ago, he left behind a life of performing that was
steeped in the sounds of contemporary Christian music.
But after the relocation, he took a sabbatical from
music, choosing to focus on a different career path and
taking time to reevaluate his beliefs.
Rickard’s long period of soul-searching helped him to
come to terms with his spirituality and his identity as
a gay man. In 1999, he returned to music and began
writing the songs that would eventually appear on
“Stirred Not Shaken.”
Songs like “Who I Am” and “As If to Say” address
spiritual, but not religious, issues that many gay
listeners should easily relate to, Rickard says.
“‘Who I Am’ is a confrontation between where I am now
and what I was raised to believe,” he says. “‘As If to
Say’ is really kind of a prayer that’s not so much a
churchy song but what I’d like my life to be known as
and what it would stand for.”
Rickard’s pleasant voice throughout “Stirred Not
Shaken” bears a slight resemblance to that of
contemporary Christian singer Wayne Watson. It’s an
instrument that delivers Rickard’s emotions in an
honest, plaintive fashion.
His lyrics are unquestionably the CD’s strong point.
The words are candid and confessional in the tradition
of the best singer-songwriters.
“Stirred Not Shaken” picks up the pace at tracks 9
and 10, but it could greatly benefit from more lively
numbers early on to offset its sadder emotional moments.
Nevertheless, Rickard is generous in sharing his
personal lows along with his highs. That kind of
songwriting can’t be easy to lay bare to the public, but
it deftly mirrors the way real lives actually can
be.
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