Aloha friends! Like many, music has been the tapestry of my life. Before I picked up a guitar at the age of 11, my favorite band, tv show, and first concert EVER was the Monkees and their reunion tour. But around that same time, my Mom introduced me to the Beatles, Bob Dylan, and all the oldies... not to mention my parents disco phase of listening to music like Kool & the Gang while cutting rug in the living room. Meanwhile coming out of my sister's room were the sounds of 45's spinning REO Speedwagon, Juice Newton, Rick Springfield, Air Supply and other popular 80's tunes. I distinctively remember carving the letters Def Leppard and Quiet Riot into the top of my dresser with a pocket knife.
I was a skateboarding misfit in those days, reading Thrasher magazine, and listening to punk music like the Circle Jerks and the Clash. Then at 14, my sister's friend turned me on to the Doors and the book "No One Here Gets Out Alive" which sublty cleansed my doors of perception. It was 1988, and MTV was in full force.
Sometime during and after that phase, I remember discovering AC DC, Metallica, Led Zepplin, Hendrix, Steve Miller Band, Bob Marley & the Wailers, the Rolling Stones, the Violent Femmes, REM, U2, and many others... along with brews and ganja in the farm field keg parties in rural Pennsylvania. If you've seen the movie Dazed & Confused, that was pretty much how life was for me in PA, we even had " parties at the moon tower" and at the gravel pits near the railroad tracks. Sadly, our local McDonald's was the hottest hang out in town. Although the keggers at our local drive-in movie theater were probably the coolest place to have a party except when fights broke out.
It wasn't until I went away to college in Florida that friends and roommates introduced me to the Grateful Dead, Phish, Blues Traveler, Allman Brothers, Dave Matthews Band, Widespread Panic and many others with the combination of some electric kool-aid ; ) and a profound shift occured within. I began learning Dead tunes on my guitar and reading Kerouac. During the summer months of my college days I started traveling out west with my guitar in hand and began writing tunes. Other forms of creativity drew me in too; film, acting, writing, and directing.
After college in '96, I moved to Los Angeles and started putting bands together to play my original tunes as well as many of my favorite covers. Since then, I've had the chance to perform at a handful of California music festivals appearing on the same bill with David Lindley & Wally Ingram, Ramblin' Jack Elliot, Chris Hillman, and Sweetwater. I jammed in many clubs, bars... some more divey than others... in California, Arizona, Florida, Pennsylvania, Hawaii, and as far away as Edinburgh, Scotland at the Fringe festival. Whoop dee do!
In 2003 some of my tunes were played on a radio show "Local Licks" KLOS 95.5 fm, a classic rock station in LA and then again on Barry Smolin's "the Music Never Stops" on KPFK 90.7 fm. In 2004, my song "Destination Unknown" (check out the video nyuk nyuk!) won a spot on Relix magazine's Jam Off cd sampler, and my band got a nice write up in the magazine's "On the Verge" section. Somebody stop me!!! LOL
By 2006 a few more of my tunes were played on the "The Frosty, Hiedi, and Frank show" on KLSX 97.1 fm in Los Angeles and were met with positve response from the call-in listeners... Yippee! In August '07, my tune "Meet You In the Heavens" was on Ziggy Marley radio, a podcast show at ziggymarley.com. That same year, an instrumental section of that same tune made it's way into an award winning documentary film called "American Drug War" directed by Kevin Booth (best friend/producer of my all-tme favorite comedian Bill Hicks). It's a must see. www.americandrugwar.com
Two years ago I got hitched to my beautiful wife Gypsy in Jamaica. We made a mecca to Bob Marley's grave in "9 Mile" Jamaica and sat on the bed that inspired Bob's lyric "We'll share the shelter of my single bed" from the tune "Is this Love." Later that day we returned to our little bubble away from the poverty of the small Jamaican shanty towns and performed Bob's tune "Exodus" along with some of our originals with the house reggae band at the resort. Gyspy's a songwriter, and I've been known to play guitar on her tunes too. Check out her music too... and the tune I wrote about Bill Hicks which she covered called "You're gone".
Also check out my myspace pages: www.myspace.com/richsheldon and www.myspace.com/rebelsoulband (RSB) to hear my tunes. And be sure to check out the music of my other friends on myspace too. Well that's all for now.
Peace out Bitches... Audi 5000 G!!!
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THE MUSIC OF RICH SHELDON
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