Rico V

Recent Projects

Although I didn't play on any studio tracks for this project, I did have the honor and pleasure of doing 2 live performances in the summer of 2007 with "Light Euphoric", playing guitar and percussion.  
This a humanitarian-pop project done by my very talented friends Tam Katzin and Chad Quist.  The project also included Bronwyn Edwads Cryer, Eddy Ferguson and former bandmate Todd Gray on the drums.  
Their music is beautiful and was great fun to play live.




Another fun project I did was for my cousin, comedian Vince Valenzuela. Vince is a very funny and talented comic, and needed some music for the intro portion of his live DVD, "Vin Shui". At the time, I didn't have a home studio, so I recruited my good friend and monster musician Eddy Ferguson to work on the project. It's a short little piece called "4 on the Floor" - really funky and fun. I did the guitar parts while Eddy, who not only composed the music, did the bass, drums, keyboards, mixing and editing. It's some of the music playing on this website!




Anyone who knows Bronwyn knows that she is always involved in a new project or something of the sort. In 2006 she wrote a tune for a commercial and had me play slide guitar on it. The tune is called "What's Your Pick-up Line?" and is for Ute Ltd (yoot). They make aluminum pick-up truck beds, trays, and other products. It is some very cool stuff. The song has a real Country flavor to it and came out great.




2005 saw the release of "The Red Piano Concert". This was a live CD and DVD perfomance I did with Bronwyn Edwards Cryer and host of other musicians. The show was a fundraiser for the ArtsWest Theatre youth progam. We raised $3000 and had a great time making music with each other. One of the tracks from this performance entitled "Boogie Mama" appears on Bron's CD "She Love's the Rain".






Over the spring and summer of 2005, I had the pleasure of working on "Inevitable", the debut CD of my good friend and songwriting partner Julie Mains. We co-wrote 2 of the tunes together and I did all the guitar work along with 3 of the drum tracks. Our good buddy Eddy Ferguson did all the bass and some drum tracks as well. We had blast doing this project and I can't wait for the next one. It's in the works as we speak.




In 2004, my dear friend Bronwyn Edwards Cryer asked me to play guitar on some tracks for her debut CD, "Late Bloomer". She is a wonderful songwriter and this disc showcases her ability to write in different styles, using several vocalists to capture the right mood for each tune. She is a great pianist and composer, and this album was a total pleasure to work on.