Nashville 2010-02-18

Hello and welcome, c'mon in, wander around and make yourself at home. The new year's brought a fresh look and layout to this site, sort of a remodelling of my virtual home and I couldn't be happier...it's been long overdue. The usual links are still in place and, as you'll see at the bottom of the links column, I am now on Facebook, Twitter and have my very own YouTube channel! The channel's a work in progress and will continue to have videos added over the next few weeks, but it's a start. Hope you like this new look as much as I do. As for the old site, it is happily enjoying retirement, grazing in a cyber pasture in Silicon Valley.

This new site has launched just in time to announce the release of my new record Valley Of The Sun. The album is all about my days growing up playing music in Phoenix, Arizona and the people, places and things that continue to inspire me. The sound of this record is what I've been trying to capture for years and a big salute goes to George Bradfute who engineered, mixed and made that happen. I feel like everything has come together on this one and you can listen to samples of all the songs by clicking on the link above. The 'Behind The Songs' link will take you to a drop down page where I've written a paragraph or two about each song and how it relates to the Valley of the Sun. The disc comes in a four panel, full colour digipak with a four page insert, some great images of the Valley and I've written the liner notes telling the story of that time. It's just the thing to bring a little warmth to these cold winter days.

I've been busy in the studio recording Johnny Reid's new album, his first American release on the EMI Manhattan label. You've read about Johnny on these pages in the past, he's a great Scottish blue eyed soul singer, writes soulful songs and an all 'round good guy. His albums have not been out of the Top Ten in Canada for several years now and this will be his debut album in the States.

I've been working with Vince Gill again who is producing an album for LeAnn Rimes, another tremendous singer and this is going to be a great album. I always enjoy getting a call from Vince, it means excellent music, good food and loads of laughs. Also finished up an album begun last year with Canadian artist, folk singer/songwriter David Francey. All three of these projects are so completely different from one another yet they all share the common elements of great songs, great singing and smart records. It's the winning combination.

It won't be long now and I'll be heading across the pond to begin rehearsals with Mark and the band for this year's tour. I really am looking forward to getting back together with my musical mates, we always have a helluva good time together. The tour dates have been selling out briskly which is always a good sign. I'm sure I'll be doing some Notes From The Road again so stay tuned.

Richard

Nashville, Tennessee