Richard Shindell - Biography
By J Poet
Richard Shindell has been called a protest singer, singing novelist, and a lyrical documentarian able to capture the tiny, telling details of the lives of the people he writes about, usually the lost and lonely people who inhabit America’s underclass. He has a gift for strong melodies, is a masterful guitar player and singer capable of delivering his message with a quiet, understated grace.
Shindell was born in New Jersey but grew up in Port Washington, Long Island, taking guitar lessons in his teens. He attended several colleges including Moravian, in Bethlehem PA, where he played in the Razzy Dazzy Spasm Band, a bluegrass group with fellow folkie John Gorka. Shindell played lead guitar, which helped him hone his playing to a razor’s edge. He graduated from Hobart College in New York, lived in a Zen Monastery, then went to Paris and busked on the streets. He came back to the states and enrolled in the Union Theological Seminary to study philosophy and religion. It was there he started writing songs seriously. He dropped out of school, began touring heavily and signed with Shanachie for Sparrows Point (1992 Shanachie), which earned rave reviews for its emotional intensity and Shindell’s passionate vocal style. Blue Divide (1995 Shanachie) included “The Ballad of Mary Magdalene” one of his signature songs. Reunion Hill (1997 Shanachie), another collection of finely crafted dark vignettes of modern life won the AFIM’s Best Contemporary Folk Album Award. Later that year Joan Baez ask him to open for her on a series of dates and cut his songs “Fishing,” Reunion Hill” and “Money for Floods” on her Gone From Danger (1997 Guardian) album. In 1998, Shindell was part of Cry Cry Cry, a trio with Dar Williams and Lucy Kaplansky that cut one eponymous album Cry Cry Cry (Razor and Tie). They covered the saddest songs of their favorite contemporary songwriters including Shindelle’s “Ballad of Mary Magdalene.”
Somewhere Near Paterson (2000 Signature), was produced by Larry Campbell, guitarist of Bob Dylan’s Neverending Tour Band. The album’s confessional tunes have a dark, country flavor and continues to follow troubled souls down the lost highway. Dar Williams and Lucy Kaplansky led support on backing vocals. On Courier (2002 Signature) Shindell and his band turn in live performances of his best-known songs while the crowd listens with almost reverent attention. In 2000, Shindell moved to Argentina and on Vuelta (2004 Koch) Puente Celeste, an Argentinean folk band, provides solid backing, but the music remains darkly American nonetheless. South of Delia (2007 Shindell) is another cover album, on the singer’s own label, featuring tunes by Dylan (“Señor –Tales of Yankee Power”), Springsteen (“Born in the USA”) and A.P. Carter (“The Storms Are on the Ocean”). Lucy Kaplansky, Viktor Krauss, Richard Thompson, Tony Trischka, Eliza Gilkyson and other folk heavies join in to flesh out the performances. In late 2008 Shindell started working on a new album tentatively titled Not Far Now.