40 years on and we have the debut solo album by musical legend Mike Richmond, co-founder of the lamented Love Tractor, leading lights of the Athens, GA music scene.
This is a great month for fans of americana music: the release of the first solo album by Athens, GA music legend Mike Richmond, founder member of the almost mythical group Love Tractor and one of the pioneers of the guitar-driven alternative rock music that encompassed local groups, including The B-52s and REM. It was during a gig as opening act for The B-52s on their Cosmic Thing Tour, that Richmond “decided the lifestyle was not for me; driving all day, getting a hotel room, playing all night”, and he quit, went back to university to gain a degree in art history, and then a job at the University of Georgia’s media library. Some intermittent re-formations occurred, starting in the 2000s when they added a couple more albums to their existing body of work (six albums in the 80s).
Richmond was the guitarist in the band and later became the main songwriter, although the band were known more for their instrumental work. He developed more and more skills in the studio, and spent time writing songs, then decided to go out on his own to write songs by and for himself, and the result is Without An Audience, the title of his new album. COVID meant more time on his own, writing songs, even getting to the stage of producing a solo album, which he decided to shelve –”it felt too weird to be a debut album”. The lyrics of a Dylan song he was learning: ‘The stars above the barren trees were his only audience’ from Blind Willie McTell. led to him coming to realise why people became creative and make music, or any other creative art, a theme that permeates the new album, as well as an examination of the world around him.
The album is a laid-back exercise in skilful songwriting, eschewing the lengthy instrumental work from Love Tractor days, but adding tasteful electric guitar to every track, including some really fine solos towards the end. He is aided and abetted by the excellent Joe Rowe on drums, and either Ben Hackett or David Barbe on bass, and the brilliant John Neff on steel, whose contribution adds considerably. Most of the tracks were laid down (Richmond’s vocals and guitar parts) over a number of visits to guitarist Matt Tamisin’s Japanski Studios in Athens, and guest artists were brought in to flesh it out to what we now have.
And so, the album kicks off with the choogling All for You, a song that might open a live set, introducimg the band and the kind of music they are going to play for the listening audience “Well hello all you people here tonight / We gonna play on the bass and drums in the broad of night / I know the electrical guitar is gonna do what it can do / We gonna do what we do / we gonna do it all for you”. The echoey vocals give the impression of a live venue; the twin guitars of Richmond and Matt Tamisin throw some nice riffs around. The mid-paced It’s Never Too Late To Finish Last has a country feel, with the steel wailing in the background and taking a lovely solo towards the end, as the song looks at the feverish pace of life in the States that the singer tries to eschew.
Inspired by a Howling Wolf song, How Many More Times has a light bluesy feel, as Richmond delivers some nice guitar parts over Hackett’s lovely bass lines. The title track is more upbeat and has an array of jangly guitars to give it a 60s Byrds feel instrumentally. You Are Not Alone starts with a serious Dylan vibe, with harmonica from Neil Rosenbaum, but vocally it seems to these ears to be more like Michael Stipe, as does the slow ballad, Oh Well.
Small Southern Towns is a real highlight, a jaunty trip through the Southwest with town names thrown out like confetti, the local atmosphere enhanced by Neff’s cinematic steel guitar, and a homage to various southern artists. Richmond’s voice is more varied on this track with haunting choruses, and his guitar solo towards the end is magical. The music on the uptempo yet poignant Murder in the Forest (a true story of a young girl’s murder near his home in Athens) is superb, underpinned by Hackett’s rumbling bass, and some fascinating interplay between steel and electric guitars.
Richmond’s subject matter is very varied: the eerie Old Victorian House was inspired by Miss Haversham from Great Expectations, and Adam Poulin adds a spooky violin to proceedings. The album is on a real roll at this stage and next up is the brilliant 5 Hammers, a quintessential trio blues, with Richmond and Hackett on top form: lyrically like ‘a COVID fever dream’, says Richmond, who wrote the song as he was suffering from the virus, “Woke up this morning / To weather so bad I’m walking down my hallway / Rain pouring in my head / I made my breakfast / Got back into bed / I’m going down to Hades / And talk to the dead”. The upbeat blues Now I Stand Before the Gates of Eternity (blues seems to be Richmond’s forte) has yet another short scorching solo to see the song out.
And to end it all is the 7-minute-long Maiden Voyage, an autobiographical look back to his pre-Love Tractor days in the Naval Air Force, with several influences in the song, Richmond seemingly in Jim Morrison mode. It is a very fine debut, very varied in tone and delivery, but with more variety in the second half, methinks.
