Singer/Songwriter Richard Shindell To Open Fall Season At Ramapo College’s Berrie Center
(Mahwah) -- Richard Shindell, called “one of the best songwriters of this or any other era” by singer Joan Baez, will bring his folk/blues act to Ramapo College’s Sharp Theater (in the Berrie Center) Friday, September 13 at 8 p.m. A master guitarist and powerful, evocative singer, Shindell has been the subject of rave reviews and caused a New York Times critic to write, “O.K., maybe he is the best.”
Together with Dar Williams and Lucy Kaplansky, Shindell formed folk super group Cry Cry Cry. The recording produced by the trio sold over 50,000 copies in its first year and spawned an underground phenomenon of a tour. The tour was supposed to last a month or so, but was extended several times. “It just took on a life of its own,” marvels Shindell. According to Pollstar, Cry Cry Cry ended the first half of 1999 as one of the Top 50 grossing tours. Joining Cry Cry Cry onstage were such artists as Richard Thompson, Ron Sexsmith, Joan Baez, and Buddy and Julie Miller. Baez was so impressed with Shindell’s songwriting that she covered three of his songs on her Gone From Danger album.
Shindell’s recently released fifth album, Courier, includes the tunes “Memory of You,” “Next Best Western,” “The Kenworth of My Dreams,” “Reunion Hill,” “A Summer Wind,” “On a Sea of Fleur de Lis,” “The Ballad of Mary Magdalen,” “Fourth of July,” among others. Previous albums released by Shindell include Sparrows Point (1992), Blue Divide (1994), Reunion Hill (1997) and Somewhere Near Paterson (2000).
“Shindell works impressive alchemy with the plainest, most primal American pop melodies. His songs unfold with the unadorned grandeur of hymns…the music glows, and when the words illuminate complexly shaded situations – an unspecifically troubled family man waiting alone in his house for an oncoming monster storm, for example – the effect can be shattering,” says Glen Hirshberg of L.A. Weekly.
“You have to keep your eye open for happy accidents,” says Shindell. “Dylan has said you come up with one line – and for me that’s how it works. You come up with one line, and that narrows down what the second line can be, and so on. I write in the car. I’ve got pieces of paper flying around in the car.”
Shindell, who was born in Lakehurst, NJ, was raised on Long Island. He was educated at Union Theological Seminary, as well as Moravian College and Hobart College. Currently, he resides in Buenos Aires.
The Sharp Theater is located in the Berrie Center at Ramapo College. Admission for the Shindell concert is $21 for adults, $18 for seniors and $10 for students. For ticket information, call (201) 684-7844.
