‘Piano Man’ still trying to figure out ‘crazy’ world

by Dennis Dalman

editor@thenewsleaders.com

Steven Fick of Rice still cannot figure out why he takes to the piano like a duck takes to water – so much so that his nickname is “Piano Man.”

Is it a genetic musical factor? After all, his maternal grandfather, John Ledoux, was a brilliant violinist? Two of his sisters also have apparently inborn musical talent.

Is it because growing up with deaf parents, Fick gravitated toward music as a wordless way to express himself?

Is it because by playing music Fick could escape into his own world as a child suffering from attention-deficit disorder?

Well, Fick still doesn’t know the answer, but he figures it could be a combination of all of the above. He does know his mother, Rhonda, often told him almost before he could walk he was intensely fascinated even by the sight of a piano. Since there was no piano in his home, he would go to the local church or anyplace else where he could satisfy his piano-playing cravings. Then, one day, he received a kid’s Tic-Tac plinky piano and he played it hour after hour.

Fick likes nothing better than to sit down and play the piano for anybody who will listen, and what’s just as remarkable as his seemingly born affinity for the instrument is that he performs his own music – songs that literally just pop into his mind.

Fick performs on the first Tuesday of every month at the Good Shepherd Community Home in Sauk Rapids. He is also a bartender at O’Brien’s Pub and Grill in downtown Rice.

Fick calls his music “New Age Classical Music.” When people shut their eyes and listen to it, they often feel like they are flying or floating or experiencing visions wrapped in moods.

He loves to play for the Good Shepherd senior citizens because he can easily see the effects of his music on his listeners. Many of them, normally, seem sad or rarely make movements. When he plays, they brighten up, smile and one woman moves one of her hands in time to the music. The seniors at the “Piano Man” music sessions, while enjoying the music, also get to hold and pet Fick’s two chihuahuas, named Kalli and Bella.

Fick was born in Detroit Lakes. His mother, a Native American, was deaf since birth. Fick’s father was also deaf, the result of some kind of high-fever infection he got when he was 5. The two met at the Faribault School for the Deaf, fell in love and got married.

Fick, now 30, is the oldest of six children. When he was still a boy, the family moved to Bejou, near Mahnomen on the White Earth Indian Reservation, where his mother had been raised.

Being a child of deaf parents was often a challenge for Fick. He and his siblings often had to stamp and shout to get their parents’ attention.

“There was a lot of hooting and hollering and stomping in that place,” Fick said, laughing. “It was like we were all throwing temper tantrums because we had to make so much noise. My parents could feel the vibrations of all the noise.”

Another challenge of being the son of deaf parents is Fick became so adept at using sign language that he never heard much English spoken in the home. As a result, when he went to school he had to learn English from scratch, almost as a baby would.

“I had a lot of trouble trying to learn the right way to pronounce words,” he recalled. “I had a real speech impediment for about the first three years of school.”

Fick freely admits he was something of a rebel when he was young, doing so many “stupid” things that would get him into trouble.

“I was always different,” he said. “People would call me a strange man, an odd duck and I guess I was, I guess I am.”

Fick would often become defensive, leery of people and developed a “don’t-give-a-hoot” attitude, causing him to become sometimes hostile, even verging on being a bully at times.

Even when troubled, Fick always had his music to fall back on.

When he lived in Moorhead, he played piano in the Radisson and the Ramada Inn, Fargo; and at West Acres shopping mall.

“I really believe music is what saved me,” he said. “Music, I think, is the one thing that kept me alive.”

Fick moved to the Rice area to be closer to his daughter, Elizabeth, now 5, but that didn’t work out because of legal hurdles. Last November, he bought a mobile home in the Rockwood Estates Mobile Home Park, and he is currently working on refurbishing it inside, top to bottom. He intends to paint the place, now a bright sky blue, a nice bright white and add a deck onto it.

“Buying used and refurbishing is a good way to stay out of debt,” he said.

In the meantime, he thoroughly enjoys piano-playing and bartending.

“I love to listen, to hear people tell their stories at the bar,” he said. “Everybody’s got a story. There’s so many stories, and everybody has a story they just have to tell. People need to let out their stories. They feel better that way.”

Other hobbies of Fick’s are cooking, geology, history, astronomy and bicycling.

“This world is so amazing,” he said. “So many things don’t make sense even after they’re explained. It’s a crazy place. Why are we here? Why am I here? I still don’t know. But I know one thing. I will not let myself become a bitter old man. I always tell people, ‘Just jump!,’ and that means go for it and be happy by following your dream.”