Moving to San Francisco just in time to miss the Summer of Love, he went to work teaching guitar and playing almost every bar in the Bay Area. He also did studio work, playing guitar on sessions that ranged from folk guitar for Shel Silverstein to Fender-bending for the electronic duo, Beaver and Krause, with more than a few ad agency jingles thrown in to help pay the rent. Shel introduced him to Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show in 1971 and he spent the next 15 years touring the world with them, and earning eight gold records.

Home from the road, he runs the acoustic guitar department at Bananas, plays countryesque music with Gayle Lynn and the Hired Hands, jazzesque music with Annie Z. and The Best She Could do, and writes for Acoustic Guitar Magazine.

Rik teaches ongoing lessons in flatpicking and fingerstyle acoustic guitar, slide guitar, and banjo, and a six-week course in enhanced practice and accelerated learning.