From Cult to Country

Cult-to-country is about country musician, Michael Ricks, growing up in a household where his parents were rabidly devoted to a religious cult that, among other things, preached against the use of modern medicine to the detriment of over 100 church member deaths in under twenty years. The eldest of nine children, Michael suffered the brunt of emotional, psychological and physical abuse meted out by his ardent father who worked thoroughly to instill suffering as a normal way of life. Michael describes how music helped him cope through the abuse and well into his adult years.Musically gifted by the age of 12, Michael took a paddle his father used to hit the children and turned it into a makeshift guitar. Thus began Michael's lifelong love affair with the banjo and guitar and country music. After years of attacks of stress-induced asthma, Michael began a personal journey to ferret out the roots of his anxiety: a journey which has taken him into the world of country music. Michael's story is a story of ongoing anxiety-remission through his love of country music and his knack for taking instruments of pain into instruments of redemption.