Rick Crump started his musical journey in the early 1970’s, when two friends needed a bass player to form a band. After many garage band settings, Rick got his first taste of being a full time musician with a variety band called “Dave and Rita and the Sound Investment”. The group was based in Northern Virginia and toured in the Midwest.
Next in line was the “Ambush Pass Band”, a blue glass outfit, that also strayed into rock and roll a bit. The group played the entire DC area extensively and a few other mid Atlantic states.
During these years Rick had been honing his songwriting skills. To date, he has written over 400 songs. Learning to play both the acoustic guitar and the flute enhanced Rick’s ability to expand his musical horizons a bit more into the singer/songwriter realm.
Rick moved to Michigan in the early 80’s, where he met Tom Burke. Tom had a vision of an act called “The Last Hippy Band” that would recreate the “sixties sound” live on-stage. It was an amazing success, as the band toured quite a bit and opened over the years for many big acts. This was also Rick’s first opportunity to record original music.
After returning to the DC area in the late 80’s, Rick met Les Hatley. Rick and Les performed together for 25 years as a duo called Crumpled Hat. The duo also joined up with the Joyful Noise! Youth choir and participated in local and touring performances including the White House and the Air Force academy chapel. The experience Les had with Cancer can Rock is what led Rick to us.
Several other ventures occurred along the same timeline; Michelle Murray joined Les and Rick to create Murray, Crump and Hatley, which resulted in a very nice five song recording project. Rick was also playing in a classic rock cover band at the same time called “Solomon’s Gold”.
Rick has three solo CD releases to his credit: 2005’s Face the Wind, 2011’s Two Worlds, and the 2013 release “Believing is Seeing”. Rick is currently working on a new 12 song project, hoping to finish in early 2022.
