Rick Stanley

Rick Stanley had a magical, Huckleberry-Finn childhood; as a loner, he felt an intimate connection with Nature. The young man's life was filled with adventures. He survived 80-foot waves in a Typhoon over the Mindanao Deep; the real “Tonkin Crisis” in Vietnam, and a giant waterspout that nearly sank his ship and gave him a merging-with-the- afterlife experience. Then it was on to the life of a traveling folk singer, (near death at the hands of Hell's Angels) and the fulfillment of his childhood dream to become a professional recording artist with Columbia Records. Even better, to have the good fortune to record with the greatest American producer of the time, Terry Melcher, producer of “the Byrds” and “Paul Revere and the Raiders.” Terry made magic with his group the “Gentle Soul” the album and singles were collector's items until “Sundazed Records” recently re-released the entire Gentle Soul discography on CD. "The Gentle Soul, most beautiful...album of the year." Billboard Magazine

Success in the music industry wasn't enough, Rick wanted fulfillment in his search for the Truths of Life, how to attain lasting happiness and enlightenment and why we are born on this Earth, to what purpose? After an overwhelming spiritual experience on a California beach, the intimate communication with the invisible Divine, he sacrificed his commercial music career, left Columbia Records, and became the musical expression of the Truth of Life with “The Song Of Life” album, written in India at the feet of His Holiness Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. You may have heard of him or know him from the Celtic-Harp-Music world, or even more likely, from the TM Movement and the music he created, recorded, and performed living and traveling with the great master for seven years.

All of this took place in his first thirty years of life; since then he attained a Masters degree in creative writing and English Literature; created and recorded seven albums of original and traditional Celtic music and became a master Irish & Scottish harp maker. celticharps.com