OWENSBORO, Ky. — When you are a bluegrass artist, someway, somehow, you must find your way to Kentucky. Kansas-born Rick Faris felt the lure. Central Kentucky was calling, and he heeded that call. The performer and guitar artisan knew he had to get to the home of the great American music form, so he packed his family up, moved to Owensboro and is now living the bluegrass lifestyle.
"I have built my life around bluegrass. I grew up playing it. I was in a family band at a very young age. I grew up in northeast Kansas. I really love that region, especially where I grew up in the glacial region. It was lovely hunting and lake kind of environment," Faris said. "This is bluegrass country over here in Kentucky, especially in Owensboro. You know me being a guitar builder that specifically bluegrass music boxes, but also being a songwriter of bluegrass music. It was a perfect home for us."
Faris is tapping into a real legacy. His offices and guitar shop are housed at the former Bluegrass Hall of Fame downtown, and the 2022 International Bluegrass Music Association New Artist of the Year winner is making his presence known. He makes, by hand, guitars for customers around the world and also offers opportunities for people to play in the front of his building. Visitors can drop by to see Faris' work, and if you’re lucky, hear him play and sing. His ability to play at a world-class level is something that makes Faris stand out among other luthiers.
"You get people that are cabinet makers, or table makers, or, you know, they decide one day, you know what, I love the guitar, I should build guitars…that is great, it is wonderful," Faris said. "You can build a great guitar, but when your ears, when you have been in the studio since you were a child, like you are listening to the minutiae of the tone, and I have jammed thousands of hours out of a bluegrass festival with no P.A. where you are just drowned out and like...I know the frustrations as a guitar player more than anyone. I have definitely lived that musician's life. I know what a bluegrass guitar demands because that is what I grew up with."
Chuck's Big Adventure in Kentucky: Rick Faris Guitars
Faris is a one-stop bluegrass enterprise. From building to teaching to songwriting to performing in concerts around the world, this uniquely American and uniquely Kentuckian art form is a major part of his life and the life of his family. The day our Chuck's Big Adventure team met with him, he was up before dawn getting the shop ready for our arrival, doing the finishing work on a few guitars and preparing for a concert later that evening with his band in Nashville. He remains thrilled though, that Kentucky is his home, and that Gov. Andy Beshear is doing a major state information campaign on bourbon, barbeque and bluegrass to lure visitors to the state.
"Bourbon is an acquired taste. Bluegrass can be too, but you know, once you get into that and who doesn't love barbeque? I mean I think you are just a 'weirdsmobile' if you don't," Faris said. "I grew up in shot of Kansas City so it's like, barbeque is a big deal. I think bluegrass and barbecue has always gone together, and bluegrass and moonshine, you know. Bourbon is not too far from that kind of traditions, but it is just incredible that you can find these things made in Kentucky, and they champion it."
Faris champions bluegrass. If you are ever in Owensboro, stop by, hear Faris do some picking and singing. Watch him make a guitar. You'll leave with a new passion for the great American music form and just might also leave with a copy of his latest album.
More of Chuck's Big Adventure in Kentucky:
- Chuck's Big Adventure in Kentucky: Visiting fabled horse parks
- Chuck's Big Adventure in Kentucky: Finding giants at Bernheim Forest
- Chuck's Big Adventure in Kentucky: Cabins on the cliffs and in the trees
- Chuck's Big Adventure in Kentucky: Rail Explorers
- Chuck's Big Adventure in Kentucky: Red River Gorge underground kayaking
- Chuck's Big Adventure in Kentucky: Visiting the Woodsongs Radio Hour broadcast
- Chuck's Big Adventure in Kentucky: Touring the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame and Museum
- Chuck's Big Adventure in Kentucky: Western Kentucky BBQ Trail
- Chuck's Big Adventure in Kentucky: Berea College
- Chuck's Big Adventure in Kentucky: Lake Cumberland — Houseboats
- Chuck's Big Adventure in Kentucky: National Corvette Museum, NCM Motorsports Park