L-R: Tom Martin, Ricky Gene Hall, Rocky Evans.

"Ricky Gene Hall, (lead vocals and guitar) was born in Kentucky, USA. Soon after, his father drove the infamous 'Hillbilly Highway' moving Ricky's family to Ohio. The family (Ricky's Mom, Dad, and siblings) lived and worked in a junk yard.

"On Sundays his family would visit his Father's guitar playing friend, Buster Parsons. At an impressionable 7 years of age, Buster began teaching Ricky to play the guitar, showing him chords, leads, and slide with a Zippo lighter or a pocket knife.

"Soon Ricky became interested in a multitude of other instruments including the piano, drums and the harmonica to name a few. As the family grew annoyed to listening to this very young child trying to learn the correct notes he was asked to practice outside. Many a day was spent on an old sag-back mare traipsing through the woods trying to learn harmonica.

"As Ricky mastered these instruments and vocals, family and friends couldn’t get enough. By the young age of 10 years old Ricky formed his first band, a trio named 'HKH'. Ricky and his trio began playing anywhere they could, picnics, school dances, dirt floor dives and even an occasional gas station." -- web site bio.

Aw, shucks.

Don't drown in the molasses; this is no slack-jawed sap. Despite having an authentic background for hilljack twangsterism, along the way Ricky Gene Hall honed his chops, style and wit to a keen edge. If he started out a junk yard dog, he's now a first-class practitioner of some of the finest songwriting and blues-playing north or south of the Mason-Dixon line.

Hall has as accomplices two experienced and savvy bluesmen. Drummer Rocky Evans has toured nationally with several acts and doubles (or triples) in the studio on guitar and piano. Bassist Tom Martin is a music conservatory graduate (symphonic tuba player) who has more fun playing bass in a blues band. Go figure. Martin also composes, arranges and records music for film, TV and radio.

As a band, Ricky Gene Hall and the Goods deliver the goods. Hall's catchy songs are full of clever rhyming patterns and melodic hooks. His guitar playing rates with the best in the business, and the band is tight. But it's the humor in them that lingers in listeners' minds.

All Music Guide, the online music industry reference, noticed the band's potential: "Ever since the Fabulous Thunderbirds scored a few hits in the '80s, there have been very few bands that managed to merge tasty and authentic-sounding blues licks with mainstream rock. That is, until Ricky Gene Hall & the Goods came along with 2008's Bam!"

Make sure you're there to discover one of central Ohio's best-kept secrets when Ricky Gene Hall and the Goods hits the Riverside Bluesfest, 3:30 pm Sunday, Sept. 6, 2009, with Ricky's finger-lickin' pickin' prickin' up the ears of even that ol' sag-back mare.
 

Discography:
Year	Title	Label
2008	BAM!	Yard Dawg Records
2007	Ricky Gene Hall and the Goods	Yard Dawg Records