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James Richards

 
James Richards

(Please note: to listen to a song immediately, click on music and select the lo-fi option. If you select the mp3 option you must wait several minutes for the en

5 songs
2.0K plays
1
Picture for song 'A Change of Heart' by artist 'James Richards'

A Change of Heart

Original Composition by James Richards. Words & Music by James Richards. Format: mp3 Time: 6:03 minutes
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2
Picture for song 'Gonna Keep on Loving You' by artist 'James Richards'

Gonna Keep on Loving You

Blues tune by B.B. King. Arrangement by James Richards.
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3
Picture for song 'Honest I Do' by artist 'James Richards'

Honest I Do

This is a tune by Jimmy Reed. Recorded in Sonora, California. August-September 2006.
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4
Picture for song 'Meditation' by artist 'James Richards'

Meditation

A tune by Antonio carlos Jobim.
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5
Picture for song 'Black Orpheus' by artist 'James Richards'

Black Orpheus

Played with a classical guitar and fully orchestrated.
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(Please Note: To listen to a song immediately, click on "music" and then select "lo-fi" located to the right of the song you want to play. If you select "mp3" or "hi-fi", you'll have to wait a few minutes for the song file to download to your computer before you can listen to it. In some cases, selecting "mp3" or "hi-fi" will only produce noise. So, we recommend you select the "lo-fi" feature to listen to a song.) James Richards is a guitarist/pianist. Currently he is a solo act using digital equipment which makes him sound like a full band. His main instruments are: jazz guitar, acoustic guitar, classical guitar, and keyboards.
Band/artist history
I've been performing for more than 30 years and have had my own bands playing different styles of music, including my own compositions. Currently I do a solo act but am working to put together The James Richards Blues Band.
Have you performed in front of an audience?
At present I play live throughout the state of California. However, I frequently play out of state and even out of the country (Canada, for example). In fact, I'll play wherever a contract takes me. If this means having to travel to Japan or Europe, well, I will.
Your musical influences
Musical influences include: jazz, blues, classical, folk, country, and just about all styles. Basically I started seriously listening to other guitarists in the 70's. Some of my favorites were Robert Fripp (King Crimson); John McLaughlin (Mahavishnu); Django Reinhardt; Joe Pass; Johnny Smith (with his "fat" jazz guitar sound); George Benson; John Williams (the English classical guitarist); and hundreds of others (including some whom many people have never heard of, like Los Indios Tabajars -- the smoothest guitarists on the planet!). Flamingo guitar (Paco DiLucia) has also been a favorite style of mine, although I still have a hard time executing the technique on the nylon string guitar. When I was 15 or 16 I liked some of the tunes by the Rolling Stones for a while but outgrew them rapidly when I heard Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath. I was also into folk music for awhile (Bob Dylan, James Taylor, Cat Stevens). The blues, of course, have always been in the picture for me, and some of my favorite bluesmen include B. B. King, Jimmy Reed and, of course, Stevie Ray Vaughn. In short, I love almost all kinds of music and think one lifetime is simply not enough to learn all the techniques in many musical styles I'd like to learn. Jazz is one of my favorite styles of music because of the improvisational aspect. I believe my strongest point in playing the guitar is the ability to freely improvise over almost any song, regardless of the style. Almost every song in my recent two CD releases ("The BLUES" and "14 Brazilian and Latin American Favorites") has solos which are spontaneously improvised. Such improvisation adds freshness to a tune because the music is created on the spot and comes from the heart.
What equipment do you use?
With respect to my musical instruments, I use a 335 Gibson semi-acoustic ( I did away with my Les Paul because it was simply too heavy on stage); an Ibanez jazz semi-acoustic; an Ovation acoustic-electric; a nylon string classical guitar; a WK3500 Casio keyboard, and a Marshall tube amp (warm sound with the characteristic Marshall distorion and great spring reverb) . My sound system is a Peavey head with Yamaha speakers. I don't use any sort of pedals (I hate them!). And, of course, I also use CD players and several other things necessary for my midi setup. As for microphones, well, I use many different types including Shure, Sennheiser, Audi-Technica, and so on.
Anything else?
I do a lot of recording on my Tascam 8-track (DP-01FX) and then transfer the songs to a CD which I'll play on stage to accompany me as background music to my vocals and guitar/piano playing. For example, I'll record all the instruments to a song and leave out the instrumental solo parts and the vocals. When I play the tune live I'll sing the vocals and play the solo lines on my guitar or piano. It is a long processes to prepare the tunes on my 8-track machine but the end result is that a song will sound and feel exactly as I want it to sound and feel. The drawback to this is that I have to carry a lot of equipment to each gig, including a briefcase full of CDs, floppy disks, etc. And it takes me a long time to setup on stage. In fact, when I arrive at a gig most people say, "Gosh! You've got a lot of equipment!" But when they hear me play they finally understand why I have so much equipment :-)
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