Rick Nestler

I was born in the Bronx, New York. Raised in Westchester County, NY. I got my first real experience performing in school plays, in Glee Club and local church basement, YM and YWCA coffeehouses.My earliest influences were Dylan, Donovan, Arlo Guthrie, my friend Rich Bala and my sister Dee. While attending Marist College in Poughkeepsie I started to write my own songs and playing them in surrounding colleges and bars. In 1970 I joined a group of three friends in forming a band called Mirkwood. The philosophy of the band was to avoid playing anything that might be a commercial tune while concentrating on original songs and obscure country, rock, and folk covers. This philosophy culminated in the group finding local critical acclaim, about three years of gigs in local colleges, no money and a date at the Cafe Wha? in Greenwich Village where, for lack of a better descriptive title, we were billed as a “hard folk” band. Obscurity and band breakup followed. I continued to play as a solo act and with sometime partner Drew Gorman opening for such people as Robert Klein, Stories and Steve Goodman in various colleges in the Northeast. I was also firmly ensconced in the tri-state (NY, NJ, CT) bar and club scene doing a mix of country, rock, pop, folk and original tunes. During the mid-70’s I found myself working at a coffeehouse called “The Fair Harbor” as second string house musician and sound man. Here I befriended more infamous folk singers like Joe Heukerott, Guy Davis and Lyndon Hardy and Jay Ungar. Lyn & Jay hired me to do sound for square dances and it wasn’t long until I was playing along with them. By the late 70’s I was expanding into the Irish pub circuit and sitting in on a regular basis with the Bronx based top forty country cover band White Birch. I was a founding member of the People’s Voice Cafe. About this time I met Pete Seeger. A friend had invited me to go out sailing on what turned out to be Pete’s boat the “Woody Guthrie.” There was no wind so the boat was rowed to Poughkeepsie where Pete asked me to join him onstage at a small festival. That night I sailed on to Kingston with Pete and found himself hooked on sailing and festivals. By 1979 I was a member of the Hudson River Sloop Singers and sailing on large traditional boats whenever possible, often being paid to play on board. It was a short step from there to actually learning how to sing sea shanties and using them aboard and at museums. Judy Gorman/Jacobs asked me to sing backup on her 1982 release, “Right Behind You In The Left Hand Lane.” In 1984 I sailed on the schooner “Voyager” to Bermuda and St. Thomas where I became familiar with calypso and reggae. That year also marked the first time I sailed as a volunteer on the schooner “Voyager” teaching the Classroom of the Waves program and my song “The River That Flows Both Ways” appeared on a Fast Folk record. Two years later that song again appeared on record, this time as the title song for my first release, “Spending My Days". By 1990 I was hired by Clearwater (The “Flagship of the Environmental Movement”) as Onboard Educator on the “Voyager”, a position I continued to fill until 1996. I also filled crew positions on the “Clearwater” as 1st mate, 2nd mate and onboard educator. In 1992 Pete Seeger included “The River That Flows Both Ways” on his release, “Family Concert.” I also appear in the video of the same. In April 1995 I received my 100 ton Masters License from the Coast Guard and have since been employed as a captain on several vessels. From 1997 thru 2000 I was the captain of the schooner “Argia” sailing out of Steamboat Wharf in Mystic Ct. I released “Phillip Hole The Singing Gravedigger” in 2001 and “Phillip Hole Digging It” in 2004 featuring humorously morbid and morbidly humorous songs that I have performed at the NY Renaissance Faire during the summers of 2001 thru 2007 where I appeared as the aforementioned Phillip Hole. In March of 2006 I released a CD of some of my favorite western music entitled “Cowboy Up”, which includes my first yodeling and tenor banjo playing on tunes written by Woody Guthrie and Gene Autry as well as a few songs of his own devising. I perform Original, Contemporary, Traditional, Country, Folk, Blues, Rock, Irish and Sea Chanteys. I've been making music for over thirty five years and have a working repertoire of 300 songs or so. Some I wrote, some my friends wrote, and some were written by friends I haven't met yet. I'm learning more and writing more all the time. I've played square dances, hoots, and jams; in parks, at rallies, in galleries, on picket lines, in bars, in coffehouses, in the street and on stage. I like everything I play and am influenced by everything I hear.