Nina Ricci Biography

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Nina's journey has been colorfully woven, a vivacious journey unique unto her...

Emerging from a humble suburb of Nashville as a shy home-schooled bedroom-musician to being auditioned for a prestigious music college at Stax Records (Memphis) in 2010 to graduating from Berklee College of Music in 2014, there was obviously a special future ahead!

         Nina always felt that she wanted to emerge out of the folk music world, for she believes in the value of having roots. While not solely a “traditional” singer, Nina interprets folk songs from the patchwork of the Americana quilt, giving a new voice to songs that have a seemingly never-ending life. And not only is she a folksinger, but Nina is an ample songwriter and guitarist, with a special gift for lyricism and a zesty guitar picking style.

As a graduate of the prestigious music college, Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, Nina holds a degree in Professional Music and a minor in American Roots Music. While attending Berklee, she was recognized with the Entrepreneurial Award by the Berklee Music Business Department for her work managing Jazz Revelation Records, the school's student-run record label. For her merits as a songwriter, Nina was selected for her song "Sickle In The Cane" about sugarcane famers in Louisiana by the Women Musicians Network to be featured in their annual concert at the BPC, March 7th, 2013. 

         Following her graduation and an interlude of wandering in the wilderness of North Georgia, honing her skills in private and learning from the Bluegrass communities there, Nina returned to Nashville. She became vigilant in booking and performing in shows in town, and she often booked other performers in songwriters events. She was eventually spotted by a team presenting a popular local concert series called “Musicians Corner,” which, for her, it was a dream-come-true to open for John Paul White of the Civil Wars performing in spring of 2017 to an audience of nearly 1,000 people! 

During 2017 and early 2018, Nina arranged and recorded her original songs for an album, sponsored by the hard work and grit of she and her mother manager, Teresa, who worked together in Kroger grocery stores. In March of 2018, she released Designs On Me, her debut album containing 7 distinctive original songs. This album provided Nina’s first interaction with radio, and through it she began to gain a reputation for her musicality, especially with DJs representing the folk genre.

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The natural next step for Nina was to broaden her base and to expand on her performance skills, and that was made possible by leaving Nashville and going on the road. 

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From April 2019 through early 2020, Nina lived and breathed touring, in fact, she had no place of residence to call “home.” She and her Mom put all of their belongings in storage and headed South in their Toyota Rav 4 like nomads. Talk about being footloose and fancy-free! Nina performed in Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Florida in many venues: from radio shows and TV spots, to small venues and open air festivals. She performed for 40 nights on the streets of Gatlinburg as a wandering minstrel with Smoky Mountain Tunes & Tales. She also had the honor of opening for (then, 82-year old) folk legend Carolyn Hester in Columbus, IN at Yes Cinema, and John McEuen of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band at the Listening Room of Sarasota (Florida.) As she travelled and became more known, Nina began to pick up festivals such as the North Georgia Folk Festival and the South Florida Folk Festival. Additionally, she was scheduled to perform at the New Jersey Folk Festival in April of 2020 as a winner in the “New Directions in Folk” songwriting contest. 

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In 2020, Nina released her much-anticipated, crowd-funded album Fare Thee Well: A Joan Baez Tribute, in commemoration of the 60-year anniversary of the musical career of folk icon, Joan Baez. Nina's development as a folk artist was influenced by the music of Ms. Baez, and this tribute was Nina's way of saying, "Thank you for the music," which she did, writing an original song called, "Club 47/Fare Thee Well,  Joan." For this album, Nina garnered a spot on the Folk Alliance International radio charts in September of 2020 (self-promoted.) Nina was able to perform songs from the album in a tribute show in a live outdoor concert in 2020 in Baton Rouge, LA at The Red Dragon Listening Room. This show was particularly special to Nina and to the venue owner, because Joan, herself, had performed at the venue 7 years prior!

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Nina is currently hard at work recording new music and this year, after a nearly blank tour schedule in 2020, Nina returns to the road re-energized and ready to sing!