The first thing I ever heard said of Richard Shindell was at my first Cry, Cry, Cry concert in January 1999. Julie Miller half of Cry3's opening act described him as a "manly, brave angel." The second thing I ever heard about Richard came from another Cry3 member, Dar Williams. As I jumped up onstage after the concert to sit beside her, she told me "Don't spill Richard's beer [which was about a foot behind and to the left of me] he'll be mad!"
Angelic nature and beers aside, Richard Shindell is a brilliant musician, although I didn't realize it at first. I first heard of Richard when he joined forces with Dar (who I was a long time fan of) and Lucy Kaplansky to form Cry, Cry, Cry. Cry3 as fans call it, consisted of these 3 very tallented musicians covering songs that had influenced them, or that they loved. I immediately fell in love with James Keelaghan's song Cold Missouri Waters, which is performed by Richard. Because the song is so poignant and stunning, I paid more attention to the words than to Richard himself.
It wasn't until the actual concert that I began to notice how tallented Richard really was! Each of the artists performed at least one song they had personally written. Although I was really moved by "The Ballad of Mary Magdelene" which Richard wrote, it really never clicked that it was his song because I had only heard Dar sing it. Richard sang "Are You Happy Now?" and I loved it immediately. I decided that I should get at least one of his cds.
I bought Sparrow's Point because it had AYHN on it. I fell in love with it immediately, not only with AYHN but also The Kenworth of My Dreams, Castaway, On a Sea of Fleur-de-lis, and just about every other song on the cd.I had the great pleasure of meeting Jim Gottlieb on the Dar-list and he very generiously sent me 3 bootegs which introduced me to my favourite Richard song, Abuelita.
Abuelita was written on a 10 hour plane ride home from Argentina. Richard (at the FRFF 1998) said that he had forgotten to bring a book or anything to do, and the plane was 16 hours late, so he had a lot of time. He did have some paper with him, however. About 4 hours into the plane ride he began penning "Abuelita". He had a tune in his mind which he didn't want to forget, so he stuck the earphones in his ears. Since they weren't plugged in, he said this made the person sitting next to him suspicious. He was also keeping time with his hands and "gesticulating (s/p) wildly". About every 30 minutes or so he would become distracted by something, forget the melody, which would cause him to wave his hands eve more wildly. Eventually, the person beside him moved to another seat. When the plane landed he had forgotten the music, but he (thankfully!) remembered it again the next day, in the vegetable section of the A&P.
Abuelita is one of the most beautiful songs I have ever heard and I'm sure it will remain a favourite of mine for many years. "Reunion Hill" is another amazing song introduced to me by these bootlegs. I had the great pleasure of meeting Richard at the above mentioned Cry3 concert (a picture is available) in person he seems very friendly and down to earth. At first glance, I wouldn't expect him to be so eloquent, and able to slip both male & female personas on and off in his songs, yet he does it so expertly. Julie's description of Richard as a "manly, brave angel" is strikely similar to Richard himself. His eyes seem to twinkle & dance with an inner joy, and his songs hold both tragic and childlike qualities as if each character embodied in them does truly live, if not in Richard, then in all of us.
Pictures of Richard
For the best Richard information see:
The Official Richard Shindell Site and
His Bio at the Official Cry3 Site