More People Really Should Know About: Richard Shindell

‘13 Songs You May or May Not Have Heard Before’ is the wonderfully modest name of Richard Shindell’s best of album released in 2011. It beautifully demonstrates his attitude towards fame or the trappings of success. He appears to be the very definition of an understated artist.

Born in New Jersey and growing up in New York he now lives in Argentina with his lecturer wife having moved there in 2000. He is not only a musician, writer, and poet but above all a wonderfully descriptive storyteller. He began writing and performing in and around New York getting his big break when Joan Baez recorded three of his songs for her 1997 album ‘Gone For Danger’.  She also asked him to open for her in support of the album thus opening up to a far wider audience.

In 1998 he helped form a group called Cry Cry Cry with two other folk musicians Lucy Kaplanksy and Dar Williams (Both of whom deserve consideration in this slot ). They released an eponymous album of mostly cover songs which won critical acclaim if not commercial success.  It is well worth checking out .

I first became aware of him and his music through the English folk duo Show of Hands. They have covered several of his songs, prompting me to find the originals. He has also guested with them several times over the years.

The breadth of his subject matter is quite astonishing from a young boy caught up in the American Civil War in ‘Arrowhead’ to rather bizarrely an ode to his mule from a weary traveller from the Roman Empire in ‘Get Up Clara’. If neither of these subjects particularly floats your boat, plenty will, perhaps the joys of Best Western Hotels may He also produced a number of songs  in Spanish, ‘Gue Hago Ahora?’ which is a lovely example.

Most of his songs tend to be written in the first person. The Wall Street Journal called him “a master of the subtle narrative”.

Perhaps his best-known song is ‘You Stay Here’ concerning refugees fleeing Sarajevo. “I wrote that lyric ‘You stay here, and I’ll go look for wood,’ one night when I was here in Buenos Aires. I had been reading something about the Sarajevo situation and the refugees in the hills around Sarajevo and the two things just came together. All of a sudden these words were put into the mouths of somebody who was fleeing the violence.”  If reading this article encourages you to listen to at least one of Shindell’s songs, I can thoroughly recommend this one.

Despite the quality of his own writing he is not frightened of taking on covers either, and his version of Springsteen’s ‘Born in The USA’ brings a completely different more poignant tone to this classic.

Not content with just music he also produces regular extremely entertaining and informative e-mails covering poems thoughts and observations from both Argentina and New York which are well worth signing up to.

Shindell is touring the UK in early 2024. If he is coming anywhere near you, I can pretty much guarantee you a good evening. He’s definitely worth checking out.