In Memoriam
"Speak Truth to Power…"
The bold and elegant vision of Richard Shindell
by Richard Cuccaro
In the summer of 1999, the temperature in the cobbled streets of the National Historic Whaling Park of
New Bedford, Massachusetts was uncharacteristically high. The Summerfest Folk Festival was in full swing
and we hurried from canopy to canopy at various locations to hear our favorite performers. The showcases
under the tent/canopies offered some respite from the afternoon sun's glare, but did not completely offer escape
from the heat. We gratefully entered the air-conditioned Whaling Museum ampitheater to watch a showcase
that featured, among others, Jack Hardy, James Keelaghan and… Richard Shindell. The chosen theme was
songs that reflected upon history. At Richard's turn, my attention was desultory at first;. I have my Shindell
favorites, "Are You Happy Now?" "Mary Magelene," "Lazy," and a number of others. The one he chose was
not one of that group. With his melancholy, Celtic style and always perfectly-matched melody and pace, he
began to sing "Reunion Hill:"
"Must've been in late September / When last I climbed Reunion Hill…" and I slipped easily into the story,
told in the words of a Union soldier's wife, her husband, years ago, lost in war. He sang on: "I fell asleep on
Indian Boulder / And dreamed a dream I will not tell…" I followed the story as she recounted how ten years
ago, her husband gone and the war raging on, a "ragged army" limped across her fields and she gave them
bread and brandy and cleaned their brows, "dousing for my husband's face." And she remembers:
"…our sad farewell / And how I ran to climb that hill / Just to watch him walk across the valley /
And disappear into the trees…" Her loneliness is indelibly captured in the final words: "Alone there in a sea of blue
/ It circles every afternoon / A single hawk in God's great sky / Looking down with God's own eyes /
He soars above Reunion Hill / I pray he spiral higher still / As if from such an altitude /
He might just keep my love in view …Must've been in late September / When last I climbed Reunion Hill…"
I sat, stunned and awestruck at the articulate sweep of the narrative and all it implies. The scope of war and of loneliness.
The vision of a loved one, disappearing forever. The core of a novel or film, there in one song. How could I have
missed this? Where was my attention when he sang this before? Whatever the reason, my regard for his prowess
took a quantum leap. I resolved to express my admiration first-hand when the opportunity arose and, if he'd agree,
write an article.
When he arrived on tour in the northeast recently, I was able to arrange a telephone interview and learned most of
what follows.
When he was young, Richard s listening diet included The Beatles, Bob Dylan, classical music, Broadway show tunes,
Gilbert and Sullivan, Rogers and Hammerstein and church music. He sang in the church choir.
At the age of 8 or 9 he decided that he wanted to take guitar lessons. His parents wanted him to study a more serious
instrument. He gave the coronet a shot and it lasted two weeks. It was "doomed to failure," he says. After that, his parents
agreed to guitar lessons. He studied until he was fourteen years old.
After high school he went to Moravian College in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and his housemate was John Gorka.
He joined with John and another musician, Doug Anderson to form the Razzy Dazzy Spazzy Band. John and Doug were
the front men while Richard played electric lead. He says, "my chops were better then," but because he was so shy, he
"had to pretend there was nobody there." At times this meant facing away from the audience.
From Moravian, Richard went to Hobart college for two years to study philosophy. He said that he'd tried two or three
times to write some songs while at Hobart, but it "just didn't work."
In 1987, he moved to New York City to attend Union Theological Seminary, uptown, near Columbia University.
It was here that he started writing. He heard some songs by David Massengill and was "blown away… and very inspired."
He said that, "A switch went off in my head" and "somebody turned on the faucet."
Among his influences, came a surprise to this author--Bruce Springsteen. Apparently, Bruce's use of storytelling in a funkier
rock format made a big impression. Richard stated: "Bruce Springsteen saved me from Art Rock." In this area he includes:
Genesis, King Crimson, Yes, Nectar and Gentle Giant.However, he says that there are elements of Genesis that "have stayed
with me…" notably, "storytelling in character that Peter Gabriel used…'Reunion Hill' is an illustration of this."
From here, Richard became involved with The Fast Folk Musical Magazine and the group of songwriters connected with it--
Jack Hardy, its founder, John Gorka, David Massengill, and others. He said that he might've heard John Gorka playing Jack Hardy's
album, The Nameless One, while at Moravian and remembered that he'd be a good person to look up later. He took the first two
songs that he completed, "Are You Happy Now" and "On a Sea of Fleur du Lis," [!] put them on a cassette, and sent them to
Fast Folk. Richard Meyer, singer /songwriter and editor of the magazine at that point, contacted Richard and invited him to come
to Jack's song swap in Greenwich Village. Richard said that it's hard to remember, but he thinks he went there every 2 or 3 weeks.
Richard's songs have appeared on many Fast Folk Magazine recordings and he appeared at a number of the annual Fast Folk
shows at the Bottom Line cabaret in Greenwich Village.
In 1988, he started playing the open mic at Columbia's venerable coffehouse, The Postcrypt. A friend of his, Ted Kessler was
managing then. He got his own gig there and had only three songs he could play, filling the rest of he time slot with patter.
This is where Richard's career proceeded, as he says, "according to how many songs I had." In 1989 or '90 he opended for
Chris Smither with about 5 songs at The Speakeasy, where many stalwarts of he "new folk" boom were appearing--people like
Jack Hardy, John Gorka, Greg Brown, Shawn Colvin, Cliff Eberhardt and Lucy Kaplansky. When he had 8-10 songs he was
able to start playing double bills. Perhaps in 1991, he says, he got his own headline gig at The Speakeasy.
While there have been some difficult times, a synchronicity seems to have been at work during all the stages of Richard's life
and career. Just the right kind of connections arriving approximately at each point he was ready for them.
When he had enough material for a CD, Richard Meyer made a phone call alerting Schanachie Records to this fact and thus in
1992, his first CD, Sparrow's Point got produced and released.
This album contains a host of brilliant songs, among them the first two works, "Are You Happy Now?" and "Fleur Du Lis";
then "Castaway," written for his son, Sam, the night after he was born, and a host of those gloriously stormy and dark pieces
he does so well. "Howling at the Trouble," "Memory of You," and "Nora" are among them. We also see an early display of his
historically aware and politically savvy nature here in "The Courier," an account of a messenger sent to collect the last words
of a doomed medieval band of soldiers, "a hundred marionettes" in "their chain-mail…Their banners taut and high." His fondness
for country-rock is found in the truck-driving story of "The Kenworth of my Dreams."
Richard says he realized that, "I had to be quick about this…the window was open and I had to jump through it…"
Characteristically downplaying, in my opinion, his uniquely strong and intelligent songwriting and formidable musical skills, he says:
"I got in under the wire before the singer/songwriter deluge."
The gigs during this period were mostly ones paying $50-$125. They included The Speakeasy every so often, a gig at the now-defunct
Treestar Coffehouse in Mount Kisco ("I made about $400, I think") and a trip to South Carolina and Georgia where: "I came home
with $500 in my pocket, after expenses, barely breaking even."
In 1995, Blue Divide was released. He says: "Things were still shaky… I was constantly thinking, 'Should I be doing something else?'"
Hard to believe, with powerful and insightful songs dealing with history, politics and religion such as "The Ballad of Mary Magdalene,"
"The Things that I Have Seen," "Arrowhead" and the piercing look at the life-and-death power excercised over an immigrant in "Fishing."
I asked him if he had any concerns about eventual retaliation (CIA, FBI and their ilk) for political statements such as these. He responded
with a old quote (I think the author that he mentioned was Ghandi): "Speak truth to power." In other words, NO. In a lighter vein, for
"Lazy," Richard used bossa-nova style chords to produce a witty love ballad I've always enjoyed immensely for its lilting melody and
playful putdown of the work ethic.
In 1997, things got better. He made Reunion Hill, and says, "I got more visibility…Dar Williams took me out on tour with her…"
Joan Baez also noticed Richard's work and recorded and performed with him. He also signed on with Hunter Management.
In 1998, a project conceived by Dar Williams resulting in the Cry Cry Cry tour and CD, featuring Richard, Dar and Lucy Kaplansky
resulted in another boost to Richard's visibility. With help, the trio selected songs by other songwriters that they felt deserving of more
recognition. While the song of the title, Cry, Cry, Cry, by Johnny Cash, did not make the CDE, they performed it in concert. On the
album, songs by Greg Brown, Julie Miller, Michael Stipe of R.E.M., Robert Earl Keen and James Keelaghan, are included among others.
They are all very moving. I was told of James Keelaghan's first playing a demo of the CD in his car on his way to his next gig. After
hearing the trio's version of his own "Cold Missouri Waters," (my favorite) a story of fatally trapped firefighters, he had to pull his car over,
unable to continue for a while, overcome with emotion. Richard sang lead on that track.
Richard's most recent release, Somewhere Near Paterson has garnered one rave review after another for its sharply defined perceptiveness
and commentary on social mores and again, political viewpoints.
Among the tracks getting heavy airplay are "Confession." in which a Wall Street trader is entreating his doctor to let him have that
"pretty blue pill" with "Hey, doc, how's about a refill?" ; and "You Stay Here," a song in which a ravaged survivor of catastrophic war
tells his wife "you stay here," while he searches for wood…bread…coats…guns… and eventually…God: ""I will bring him back with me
/ make him listen, make him see." Going mad with desperation and doubting, but still wanting to believe.
In "Abuelita [little grandmother]," picking up the torch for the women who still parade in Argentina for those who have "disappeared"
under the previous miliary junta, Richard speaks in the voice of a grandmother, addressing her grandson that she's never gotten to see:
"Soledad was your mother's name / She fell in love with my Juan Luis / They may be gone / But I am still your Abuelita."
Utterly heartbreaking.
Richard has relocated from the United States to Argentina and, in spite of the grimness of what we've learned from "Abuelita," has returned
with some amusing ancecdotes. At a recent concert, he related how the working class Argentinians have reacted to AOL's atttempts to push
their application CD's. Children use them to play penny-pitching style games against buildings. Cab drivers attach them to the windshields of
their vehicles to thwart traffic department photography at intersectons. The disc works perfectly to bounce the flash back and prevent them
from getting caught going through red lights.
From Richard's website , we learn that some recommendations of literature and music include:
Books--
A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History - Stephen Jay Gould
The Baron in the Trees - Italo Calvino
Mr. Wilson's Cabinet of Wonders - Lawrence Weschler
Trespassing - John Hanson Mitchell
Ficciones - Juan Luis Borges
Music:
St. Dominic's Preview - Van Morrison
Tomorrow the Green Grass - The Jayhawks
Folk Singer - Muddy Waters
Ten Year Night - Lucy Kaplansky
Mule Variations - Tom Waits
Anthology of American Folk Music - Edited by Harry Smith
Broken Things - Julie Miller
Cruel Moon - Buddy Miller
Upcoming Appearances
Aug 16, 8:30pm Free Huntington Summer Arts Festival Hecksher Park, Chapin Rainbow Stage ,
Huntington, NY (631)271-8423 x5
Aug 18, 7:30pm $20 The Turning Point Cafe , Piermont, NY (845)359-1089, 2 Shows: 7:30 & 10:00
Aug 19, 12:00pm Clearwater Festival Sunset Park, Asbury Park, NJ (732)872-9644
Aug 22, 8:00pm $18 Baldwin's Station , Sykesville, MD (410)795-1041. Rod Picott opens
Aug 24, 7:30pm $20 The Turning Point Cafe , Piermont, NY 2 shows: 7:30 & 10:00, (834)359-1089
Aug 26, 6:00pm $18/$20 Club Passim , Cambridge, MA 2 shows:: 6:00 & 9:00 PM. (617)492-7679
Sep 20, 8:00pm $17.50/$20 Towne Crier Cafe , Pawling, NY (845)855-1300, Amy Rigby opens.
Sep 21, 8:00pm $15/$18 Memorial Hall Theater Shelburne Falls, MA (413)625-2526, Amy Rigby opens.
Sep 22, 8:00pm $14/$16 Peterborough Players Theater , Peterborough, NH (603)827-2905, Amy Rigby opens.
Sep 23, 8:00pm $10 Unity Center for Performing Arts , Unity, ME (207)948-7469, Amy Rigby opens.
Sep 26, 8:00pm $15 Rosendale Cafe , Rosendale, NY (845)658-9048
Sep 27, 8:00pm $16 Four Corners Grill, New London, NH (603)526-6899, Amy Rigby opens.
Sep 28, 8:30pm $18 Me and Thee Coffeehouse, Marblehead, MA (781)631-8987, Amy Rigby opens.
Sep 29, $18 Outta Sights and Sounds , Hightstown, NJ $15 advance, $18 door. Grace Norton Rogers School Theater,
Stockton Street Hightstown, NJ. . Amy Rigby opens.
Oct 20,8:00pm w/ Jill Sobule Brookdale Performing Arts Center , Lincroft, NJ (732)224-2411
Website: www.richardshindell.com
In Memoriam
Barbara Horowitz
We are saddened to announce the passing away of Acoustic Live in NYC co-founder Barbara Horowitz, on Sunday, July 8th, 2001.
With her passing, the folk community of the New York Metropolitan area has lost one of its angels. She was a concerned and eager
booster of folk music and its performers, first as a volunteer coordinator at the Fast Folk Cafe and later as an editor, features writer
and listings compiler for this newsletter/listings guide.
Barbara became interested in traditional folk music and along with her late husband, Fred, attended many concerts. She was also a
member of the New York Pinewoods Folk Music Club.
Barbara came to the Fast Folk Cafe, first as an audience member. Then, when an urgent request for help came from management,
in the manner of the true friend she always was, she eagerly pitched in. She became co-organizer of volunteer help for manning
shows at the cafe and spent many evenings making phone calls and sending e-mails to find initially enthusiastic, but often elusive helpers.
Whenever she was needed, she also worked at shows herself, assisting at the snack bar, ticket-taking or filling the role of M.C.
As a result of her exposure to the singer/songwriter genre, she became a fan of contemporary artists.
She had worked as an editor at American Management Association, a medical assistant and as an advertising copywriter.
We will miss her sweet sense of humor, her intellect and wit, her unending sense of devotion to the folk music scene, and invaluable
help with the monthly assembling of this newsletter. Most of all we will miss the deep well of her friendship.
--Richard Cuccaro, Publisher