RICHARD SHINDELL

Richard Shindell is a master builder of songs with a remarkable ability to inhabitant the lives of characters — from the New York cab driver of "Last Fare of the Day" to the Civil War widow of "Reunion Hill."

Born in New Jersey, Shindell grew up in Port Washington, Long Island, where he began taking guitar lessons. He spent the last of his teenage years in Baltimore, then attended Hobart College in upstate New York, where he continued to pursue his musical interests. During an earlier stint at Moravian College, he teamed with John Gorka in the Razzy Dazzy Spasm Band.

Upon graduation, Shindell moved into a Zen Buddhist monastery, leaving to explore Europe, and ending up the proverbial struggling musician in Paris, where he would often play for coins in the underground Metro stations.

Leaving the City of Light, Shindell found himself in New York. Fascinated by philosophy and religion, he enrolled in Union Theological Seminary. Between classes, he began to write and finished what he calls his first “keeper song,” a melodic if cryptic ode to the Virgin Mary, composed on the mountain dulcimer and entitled “On A Sea Of Fleur de Lis.” He went on to release three records on the Shanachie label: Sparrow’s Point (1992), Blue Divide (1994) and Reunion Hill (1997), which won the AFIM “Best Contemporary Folk Album” in 1998.

With each successive record, Shindell toured relentlessly and built a solid following of loyal fans. In 1997, he expanded his audience when he was invited to join Joan Baez on tour. The folk legend covered three of his songs on her Gone From Danger CD.

In 1998, Shindell formed the acoustic trio Cry Cry Cry with Dar Williams and Lucy Kaplansky, producing an eponymously titled album comprised largely of cover songs of lesser-known artists.

In 2000, Shindell released Somewhere Near Patterson. He also moved with his family to Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he recorded Vuelta (2004). For this project he joined up with Puente Celeste, a distinctly Argentine group of virtuoso musicians. His next release, South of Delia, comprised covers of songs such as "Acadian Driftwood" (Robbie Robertson) and "Deportee" (Woody Guthrie). Shindell thoroughly rehabilitated Bruce Springsteen's often misunderstood "Born in the USA" with a crunchy low-key groove even as he stripped Bob Dylan's "Senor (Tales of Yankee Power)" to its plaintive and mysterious core.

Not Far Now, his first collection of new songs in five years, is due out in April 2009. Shindell recorded the CD in his home city of Buenos Aires and provides much of the backing himself, including acoustic, 12-string, electric and bass guitars, as well as bouzouki and piano. Critics are already suggesting it may be his best yet. One reviewer likened the release to a collection of short stories where tales of a traveler and his mule in the Roman Empire ("Get up Clara"), rub shoulders with a balloon seller on the streets of Buenos Aires ("Balloon Man"), and crooked land developers in the southern United States ("One Man's Arkansas").

In all likelihood the new CD will confirm one more time Shindell's unique, indelible talent — "his uncanny sense," in the words of the Boston Globe, "of the theater of a song."

Sun Mar 8 | 7 pm
CSPS | 1103 Third St SE | Cedar Rapids
$17 advance | $20 day of show

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