Ross is a Singer/Songwriter with a top 25 Media Base and a top 30 Billboard Adult Contemporary Chart single with "The Road" performed by TrueHeart.
Top 5 FMQB Chart singles with "The Road" and "Plan for Peace."
Critical reviews compare his work to Paul McCartney, James Taylor, Jimmy Webb, Ari Hest, Sarah Jarosz, Amie Mann, Joni Mitchell.
With producer/arranger/writer Gary Leach, Ross's composition "Plan for Peace" won the 2010 UK Songwriting Competition in the Gospel/Faith category.
The group TrueHeart featured his sister Karen Cavazos and brother Patrick Vick on vocals, Aaron Kelly on lead guitar, James Driscoll on bass and Matt Kellum on drums. The band also featured Sam Swank and Marty Walsh on lead guitar, Tram Kelly and Aden Bubeck on bass and Sean McCurley and Jeff Howe on drums.
A Beatles Scholar:
In 2023 Ross graduated with honors from the University of Liverpool Master of Arts programme: The Beatles: Music Industries and Heritage. "It was the chance of a lifetime to immerse myself in all things Beatles for 15 months and live in Liverpool where it all began. Sadly the programme has been placed on hiatus but our class was the last to graduate, as of December 2024, and as of now there are about 30 Beatle Scholars from the University of Liverpool."
Ross' Master’s Dissertation is: Journeying to Liverpool: Is Beatles Tourism an Act of Pilgrimage?
Of the many exciting moments, several stand out thanks to the generous spirit of the curator of the Lennon and McCartney boyhood homes. On one occasion Ross was able to have Paul's home on Forthlin Road to himself as the curator prepared to close the property for the day. Ross played the piano, and brought his guitar and played in the rooms where John and Paul wrote and practiced so many memorable songs. Ross donated his guitar to the curator who makes the instrument available to anyone who wants to strum a tune in Paul's home. Last December 8, Ross and his wife were able to help close down John's house at Mindips by leaving his bedroom light on as a beacon of peace and hope for the world.
One unforgettable week was spent in a cottage on the Isle of Wight and turning 64 in the process. We collected tickets to Ryde on the journey. It was quite a fun time to live out a Beatle lyric in real life…
The program for International Students is 12 months running from September to September. The graduation ceremony is in December following the study and Dissertation period for a total of 15 months abroad. In those 60 weeks, the depth of study required a comprehensive understanding of the history of Liverpool, the importance of its location and standing in British economic development, and as a gateway to the cultural influence of America in particular upon the British and specifically the Liverpool music scene, coined by a colleague of John Lennon as Mersey Beat.
In addition to meeting Roag Best and Michael McCartney, we visited The Cavern Club regularly, The Casbah Club, where the Lads got their start, and the Jacaranda, the club from whence the Beatles departed for Hamburg. There are dozens of Beatles sites in and around Liverpool, and my pilgrimage and studies led me to most if not all of them.
Of course, the Beatles as such spent more time living and working in London as they did Liverpool, and we visited those locations and researched in London as well. One of the most interesting places to visit with Beatle connections is Portmeirion, Wales. Brian Epstein was fond of this quiet, exotic place built in 1925 to resemble an Italian mountain village. George Harrison celebrated his 50th birthday there. Another is Port Sunlight, Wirral, which is where Ringo played his first gig as a Beatle. It is the company town for Lever Brothers/Unilever and was home to Peaky Blinders scenes.
We spent a semester studying the Beatles as a brand, and looking into how the music and their image will be managed going forward. I wrote a paper for a redevelopment plan for Penny Lane that was presented to the Lord Mayor of Liverpool. As with most adventures, the best part was making friends with my professors and colleagues, and of course, getting to know better, the Beatles and their entourage. It was an amazing way to spend a year in the U.K.
Ross is a 7th Generation Texan who believes that the strength of Texas is ON the land as well as under it. His interest is in transitioning generational family hay fields and timber plantations into industrial hemp for pulp, construction, fiber, oil, and cake.
E-Heart Records EH-072807 Available from CD Baby.
A review written for the Folk & Acoustic Music Exchange by Mark S. Tucker(progdawg@hotmail.com)
Normally, I don't like snappy happy music, and I'm thinking Bangles here, but some people just have an extraordinary knack—guys like David Wilcox, Michael Franks, and Michael Tomlinson—so much so that you can't help but fall into their optimistic wiles. Now add Ross Vick to that list, because he definitely has the magic. A writer and co-writer with a truly captivating voice, this tunesmith makes the listener smile from heart to lips. 100% radio friendly, Vick knows his way around a good hook, a trait shown several times on the second cut Lay Me Down, which would normally be a sure chart climber except that…there's no place for music like this any more, or so it seems. Unpretentious, toe-tapping, innocent while erudite, craftsmanship like this was somewhat viable when Seals & Croft were in their brief heyday but has always struggled amid market mediocrity. Think of Batdorf and Rodney, Barnaby Bye, the Ditty Bops, and the gents I mentioned earlier, and you've an idea why Trueheart is the kind of ensemble that should be spreading broad contentment through the airwaves but will most likely be fated to remain a cult band, despite the promo sheet informing us there has indeed already been radio reception, the group even opening for the Beach Boys (!) in a Make A Wish Foundation event. So why the hell haven't I heard of them? This is their fourth release! Maybe I just need to turn on the friggin' radio more (shudder!—though, for this kind of music, it'd be worth it). The Road is a good example of how the fare carries itself: acoustically driven, a beautifully subdued piece of achy love and loss, almost Gordon Lightfoot-ish in its poignancy and sonorities. Then comes Goodbye, crossing that quality with Kenny Loggins and Wes King. In fact, every cut on this disc is very very good, shot through with rays of light and hopeful shadows. Had Ambrosia and Pablo Cruise been able to write this genuinely from mind and heart, then backed it with equally apropos musical complementation, they'd still be around. Gary Leach does a superb job of arranging and producing the whole affair (playing multiple instruments and singing as well), perhaps a trifle over-produced in a few spots but highly sympathetic to Vick's voice and emotional tone.I'll tentatively warn that there's a good deal of low-key Christianity present. As an atheist, I'm less than nuts about it, but, since I regard Christ as one of the true proto-anarchists and greatly appreciate his work, I can't help but warm up to Vick's artful and sincere ground-level continuance of that travail. In that, then, he again joins the earlier mentioned Wes King as well as Phil Keaggy & Glass Harp, two sterling examples of Christian rock that don't neglect art for proselytization. However, the philosophy hardly causes a ripple when the music is this fine, this catchy, and this revivifying—in fact, Vick so aptly captures the profoundly simple lessons of Jesus (as opposed to the Bible, especially the Old Testament) that we're forced to consider how universal and timeless they are, how humanely they address the human condition, and how gently any of them sits on anyone's sense of responsibility (should I mention that, after Christ, there are only 2 commandments, not 10 [see Matthew 22:37-40]? Perhaps not, Christians know nothing of this.).That to the side, if you haven't smiled for a while, even through the perpetual haze of frustration with human foibles, or if you have and you'd kinda like to keep it up, grab this CD. It's one of those rare gifts that just keeps on giving.
Edited by: David N. Pyles (dnpyles@acousticmusic.com)Copyright 2008, Peterborough Folk Music Society. This review may be reprinted with prior permission and attribution.