“LAY IT ON THE LINE”
RIK EMMETT is renowned as the lead singer/songwriter/guitarist with TRIUMPH on a dozen platinum albums from 1975 to 1988. Twenty-five more non-platinum solo indie projects have followed over the years, encompassing a range of musical genres. Six decades in the music business have earned him induction into five Halls and two Walks of Fame, with a few ‘Best Guitarist’ awards in various categories garnered along the way. Retired from touring, Rik has kept himself busy. In collaboration with ECW Press, “Reinvention”, a poetry collection, came out in 2021, and his memoir (‘LAY IT ON THE LINE –A Backstage Pass to Rock Star Adventure, Conflict and Triumph’) followed in the fall of 2023. His latest 2024 offering (album project # 25) is entitled ‘Ten Telecaster Tales’, a combination of ten instrumental pieces with an accompanying book–arguably the most comprehensive attempt at liner notes in the history of instrumental fingerstyle electric guitar albums.
International recognition for his exploits in the music biz provided entry into the Canadian Rock Hall of Fame, the Music Industry Hall of Fame, the Junos Hall of Fame, the Canadian Walk of Fame, and the Heavy Metal Hall of Fame, as well as induction into his then-hometown Mississauga Musician’s Walk of Fame and Legends Row, with a few ‘Best Guitarist’ awards in various categories garnered along the way.
Emmett morphed from Smooth Jazz awards in ’05 and ’07 to the worldwide release of a prog rock project called Airtime in ‘07, to a Latin / Mediterranean guitar trio project called ‘Trifecta‘ in 2009 (nominated for a Best Instrumental Juno). Then the full-blown rock band project, RES 9, by Rik Emmett & RESolution9, was released worldwide by the MASCOT / PROVOGUE label in 2016. 2020’s Folk Songs for the Farewell Bonfire (The Bonfire Sessions) featured 18 solo acoustic/vocal tracks, as well as six jazz guitar instrumentals. In the spring of 2024, RockPaperMerch’s offshoot label from Merch in Motion put out Rik’s 24th solo release, ‘DIAMONDS’, a remastered compilation of harder-rocking tracks from Rik’s 1989 to 1995 period.
Rik became a published poet in 2021, with a collection entitled ‘Reinvention’, on ECW Press, followed by his 2023 memoir, LAY IT ON THE LINE –A Backstage Pass to Rock Star Adventure, Conflict and Triumph. An innovative project combining a book and CD followed in 2024, ‘Ten Telecaster Tales’, also on ECW Press.
Searching backwards chronologically, the 18th and 19th albums of his independent career were “Marco’s Secret Songbook”, [2012] a concept album with 15 music tracks, a spoken word narrative & symphonic underscore: and “Then Again”, [also 2012] an acoustic duo with Dave Dunlop, reworking the most popular Triumph repertoire with new arrangements. In 2011, “reCOVERy Room 9“ was released (also an acoustic duo with Dave Dunlop), featuring nine cover songs from an eclectic range of pop. (A complete discography can be found on www.rikemmett.com.)
Rik was a popular columnist for Guitar Player magazine for 13 years, compiling that work in his self-published educational series, For The Love of Guitar. He was also an innovative and diverse music educator of long standing at Humber College in Toronto, and is the Artistic Director Emeritus of the annual Songstudio Songwriting Workshop, which has been running for over 20 summers.
