Rick Holmstrom grew up as the archetypal clean-cut neighbor kid who nevertheless found himself hauling a guitar into the haze of low-lit clubs packed with veteran blues players. His early exposure came through his father, a disc jockey in Alaska who filled the house with LPs by Chuck Berry, Muddy Waters, the Ventures, and Buddy Holly. Relocating to Southern California for school in 1985, Holmstrom entered a raw garage blues group that revived his interest; he then haunted the Pioneer Club, Babe & Ricky’s, and the Pure Pleasure Club, absorbing lessons from Smokey Wilson and Junior Watson.
Between 1985 and 1988 he performed and traveled alongside harmonica master William Clarke, devoting one stretch exclusively to rhythm guitar. Former Delta bluesman and harpist Johnny Dyer took him under his wing, resulting in two potent Black Top releases: Listen Up in 1994 and Shake It! the following year. When Alex Schultz departed Rod Piazza & the Mighty Flyers, Holmstrom’s prior sessions with Rod made him the natural replacement. At the urging of Black Top’s Hammond Scott, he cut the all-instrumental Lookout! in 1996, which earned spins on blues and rock stations by delivering unadorned, hard-edged blues rather than a predictable blues-rock hybrid.
Holmstrom injected fresh intensity into the Flyers, whose 1997 Tone Cool album Tough and Tender established Rod and the band as the most exciting unit on the road. His own Gonna Get Wild appeared in spring 2000. He remained with the Mighty Flyers one additional year before exiting after their 2001 album Beyond the Source. Hydraulic Groove, issued in 2002, surprised listeners by folding jazz and funk into the blues framework while incorporating loops, samples, and contributions from John Medeski and DJ Logic. Holmstrom kept active producing other artists and performing until Live at the Cafe Boogaloo surfaced in 2006.
