Richard has a new CD, "Now and Then" which can be ordered from his website richardberman.com. A song from the CD, "There Is No Gold" is available for free download on this site. .....................................................................................................................
"This man has the gift." So said the late Utah Phillips, legendary figure in American folk music, after hearing Richard Berman sing at the Kerrville Folk Festival's Ballad Tree in 1992. And Richard has used that gift to write many songs that tell moving, true stories. "Gil's Song", the song that prompted Utah Phillip's appraisal, is the tale of a Wyoming sheepherder's one brief attempt at closeness and its consequences. Humor, too, is part of Richard's performance, as in "Monopoly", his first-person account of the power of that game on behavior, and "The Kids Are Back", his take on the latest stage in family development, both songs from Richard's second CD, Love Work and Play (and both on video here at MySpace). His third CD, Dreamer, included his first songs of requited love, "A Love Song" (on video) and "Here And Now", as well as the haunting "The Fortune Told". Both Love, Work and Play and Dreamer were chosen "One of the Best Folk Albums" of 1996 and 1998, respectively, by Rich Warren, host of "The Midnight Special" on WFMT in Chicago, the longest continuously running folk radio show in the country. Richard's 4th CD, Storied Lives, won the 2001 Just Plain Folks Award for "Best Traditional Folk" CD. It includes the memorable, ironic story song "On the Mexican Coast", a song featured on the compilation disks Artists for Change and Songs for a Better Planet, Volume II. 2005 saw the release of Holding Hands which was chosen one the "Top Ten Albums" of the year by Maggie Ferguson of WXOU and one of the eleven "Essential CDs" of 2005 by Bill Hahn of WFDU.
Born in Brooklyn, New York, Richard left the city to go to college in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He has lived most of his adult life in Amherst, Massachusetts with his wife and two children. Richard received an MSW and worked as a therapist for years with children and families. He has also taught as a classroom teacher in the Amherst public schools. Drawing on his experiences as a husband, therapist, teacher, father and son, he has written songs that impart his understandings of people and their situations in direct and compelling ways.
Richard first received national recognition in folk circles for his work by winning the 1992 Napa Valley Folk Festival's Emerging Songwriters Contest. He went on to win the 1995 South Florida Folk Festival's songwriting contest, was selected to showcase at the 1997 Falcon Ridge Folk Festival and was chosen to do so again in 2001. In 1999 Richard won the Sierra Songwriters Festival's songwriting contest. In 2000 he was a finalist at The Wildflower Festival's songwriting contest, the winner of the Rose Garden Coffeehouse Songwriting Contest and was a finalist in the Kerrville Folk Festival's New Folk songwriting contest, a selection that was repeated in 2001. In 2003 he won the Susquehanna Music and Arts Festival's songwriting contest. Over the past dozen years Richard has performed in coffeehouses, clubs, festivals and house concerts in the Northeast, the Southwest, and California, and has toured in England, Wales and Sweden. Among the clubs he has played at is the Bluebird Café in Nashville, TN, where he was selected to showcase in 1994 and came back to play again in 1996, 1998, 2001, 2005, 2007 and 2009.
Richard, what a real pleasure it was to be able to present you to this San Antonio audience. Your house concert here was a bright and shining moment for us all, and the folks are still raving about how much they all truly enjoyed every moment of it! Thank you for making the trip all the way down here to bring to us your unique talent and keen observations of human nature. I just knew that this audience would recognize what a rare gift you are, and it was awesome to be able to hear you in person. I look forward to the next time you are down here, and thank you so much for the laughter, the tears, the wonderful conversation, and the gift of maple syrup from your home town..that stuff is pure gold! I'm looking forward to your new album as soon as it is ready! All the best, and thanks again, JoLynn
Hello Richard! Happy to find you here (saw you on bobs space). Your CD runs in my car to and fro :-) Hope all is well with you. Take care and all the best. /Bo
I really missed you at the concert at Agueli tonight!
I would have loved to hear you sing your songs again, but you were there in a way when Sten played “Stens song” (everyone hade tears in their eyes), when Sven played the one you wrote together and when Brett played “People holding hands”
Thank you so much for the CD, it’s really great, such nice songs.
Hope to see you sometime; it was a great pleasure meeting you.
Thanks for a great show here last week. Everyone had a fabulous time and we really enjoyed being able to spend some time with you. Hopefully we'll be able to do it again some day.
