On a quiet farm in west-central Alberta, songs have been finding Rick Wolsey for more than fifty years.
Some arrive while he’s looking across the fields.
Others begin with a passing thought, the rhythm of a machine, or the changing weather.
A few have even appeared while he was asleep.
“I have even dreamt more or less complete songs,”
he says. For Rick, music has never been something he needed to search for.
It has simply always been there.
Spend a few minutes talking to Rick Wolsey and one thing becomes clear almost immediately. Despite writing more than 3,100 songs since 1975, he speaks very little about achievement.
Instead, he talks about ideas.
About family.
About nature.
About the simple joy of creating.
There is a quiet humility in the way he tells his story, as though writing thousands of songs is less an accomplishment than a natural part of everyday life.
Rick wrote his very first song on April 11, 1975. He still remembers the date.
More than five decades later, the songs have never really stopped coming. Sometimes they arrive faster than he can write them down.
“Ideas for songs sometimes come so fast that I don’t have time to work on all of them.”
He has learned to keep notes, trusting that today’s unfinished idea may become tomorrow’s song.
That philosophy has even inspired one of his personal projects: returning to every unfinished song he has ever started.
What once numbered in the hundreds has gradually been reduced to around forty.
For Rick, every song deserves the chance to be completed.
A Life Shaped by Quiet Places
Rick’s music is deeply connected to where he lives.
His home in rural Alberta isn’t simply an address. It is part of the creative process.
The changing seasons.
The open landscape.
Nature.
The weather.
Even the steady rhythm of farm machinery has found its way into new ideas.
Almost anything can become the beginning of a song.
“Music constantly plays in my head.”
Listening to Rick describe his writing process, it almost feels as though he isn’t chasing inspiration. He’s simply paying attention when it arrives.
A Songwriter First
Rick is remarkably modest when speaking about himself.
“I’m not a particularly talented guitar player or vocalist,”
he says with a smile.
Coming from someone who has written more than 3,100 songs, the comment feels less like self-criticism and more like honesty.
His real ambition has never been fame. It has always been the songs themselves.
“My goal is to have other people perform my music.”
He also enjoys sharing the work of other artists through his social media channels, encouraging listeners to discover music beyond his own catalogue.
There is something generous in that approach. Rick seems just as happy celebrating someone else’s music as talking about his own.
Music for Life’s Brightest and Darkest Days
Like most songwriters, Rick draws inspiration from everyday life.
Sometimes those moments are joyful and sometimes they leave a permanent mark. A little over five years ago, his family experienced the heartbreaking loss of a grandson, Wyatt, on the day he was born.
Rick did what he has always done when words alone weren’t enough. He wrote.
“I expressed my feelings as best as I could in songs that I wrote around that time.”
Later, he had Wyatt’s name embossed on an Epiphone Starling guitar he had bought that very morning. The instrument has become more than a guitar. It has become a quiet memorial to someone whose life was heartbreakingly brief.
It’s also a reminder of something Rick’s story returns to again and again: Music has never simply been entertainment. Sometimes, it becomes memory.
Still Curious
The Beatles remain his greatest musical love, alongside artists ranging from The Rolling Stones and Roy Orbison to Blue Rodeo and Bryan Adams.
Ask him about unexpected favourites and he smiles before mentioning The Flying Lizards.
It’s exactly the kind of answer you expect from someone who has spent a lifetime listening with open ears rather than fixed expectations.
That same curiosity continues to shape his own writing.
Even after fifty years, Rick still talks about songs with the excitement of someone discovering music for the first time.
Tomorrow’s Song
Today, Rick shares his music through two Instagram accounts, preserving both original songs and carefully chosen covers while continuing to write almost every day.
There is no sense that he is trying to catch up. Or prove anything. There is only the quiet feeling that another melody will eventually arrive, just as it always has.
Perhaps tomorrow morning.
Perhaps while walking across the farm.
Perhaps in a dream.
Whatever the moment, Rick Wolsey will probably do what he has done for most of his life.
He’ll write it down.
