Richard Day-Reynolds Profile, April 2004

Richard Day-Reynolds Band

Making Original Music That's True To Its Roots

Richard Day-Reynolds

In one form or another, the Richard Day-Reynolds Band has been impressing music fans with performances and recordings of Blues and roots music for over six years. The group has gone through several iterations as the players have changed and the band's direction has shifted. Such change is understandable for Richard Day-Reynolds, given the way he embraces a variety of musical styles and has pursued his own artistic development. But, throughout the process, one thing that hasn't changed is the consistently high quality music that the band has produced.

The latest edition of the Richard Day-Reynolds Band has brought together a versatile group of veteran performers who offer up their own distinctive approach to the Blues and related music forms. The band is not, as the name might suggest, simply a vehicle for its leader to showcase his own talents. The strong contributions of its various members have shaped the band's character and offered new directions to pursue.

Increasingly, these days you'll find the band performing as an acoustic quartet with Richard typically being joined by bassist Pat Counts, guitarist Rick Roadman and fiddle player Phil McCoy. Lead and backup vocals are shared by the group. For Richard, the acoustic performances are a return to his roots. Folk and Country musical styles, including Blues and Bluegrass, were prominent in his early influences and he started out performing acoustically, often as a solo act. In fact, Richard didn't even own an electric guitar until he was 25 years old.

The acoustic incarnation of the band has a practical component as well. Richard has found considerable interest for acoustic performances at wineries and small clubs. Given these opportunities, the band decided to record an extended-play demo of acoustic performances that they could circulate to prospective venues. Thus far, the resulting demo is a collection of six of Richard's compositions that the quartet recorded in one sitting at a theatre near Richard's home in McMinnville. Richard has posted MP3 versions of the six tracks on his website for interested fans.

When offered the chance, the plugged-in version of the group also performs their brand of electric Blues in local clubs. Usually performing as a quartet, core members Richard, Pat and Rick are often joined by drummer Jon Byer, who also plays with The Bad Samaritans. If Jon has a conflict, they call on Boyd Martin or another local standout percussionist.
In 2003, Richard was left with a vacancy behind the drums for the first time since the band's inception when his long-time friend, Gary Carpenter decided to put down the sticks and move to Houston, Texas. The group is also faced with the continuing absence of keyboardist, Frankie Redding, Jr. as he recuperates from major surgery.

What with Gary moving away, Frankie's forced sabbatical, and other personnel changes, Richard is currently the only active band member from the lineup that produced their first studio release, "Its Not Easy", in 2002. Of course, given that Richard wrote eight of the songs on that recording, the new lineup continues to play plenty of material from the CD during their performances. Although they don't mind dusting a few covers of Blues standards, performing original music is Richard's and the band's primary focus.

"It's Not Easy" was originally intended to be a studio version of the band's 1999 debut release, "Live @ The Deluxe." However, delays prevented the first sessions from being completed and, in the interim, Richard came up with enough new material to precipitate a change in plans. The result is a tight set of 10 electric Blues and R&B songs which showcases Richard's talents as a vocalist and guitarist, as well as a songwriter.

The band plans to put together a new CD of original material, possibly including both electric and acoustic tracks, in the near future. Since Pat and Rick also write songs and enjoy singing, the band has plenty of artistic talent to put together a complete set of original music. Consequently, Richard is looking forward to this next project being truly a collaboration of the whole band. But, coming up with adequate currency to finance the CD and scheduling around other responsibilities, such as the dreaded day jobs, can be significant hurdles. As far as day jobs are concerned, Pat works full-time as an electrician, a trade he has been pursuing in one form or another since he was 12, and Rick puts in his time working as a graphic artist. For his part, Richard manages the soup kitchen at a local church in McMinnville.

The group's emphasis on playing their own songs creates its own complications. Many venues prefer to bring in acts that concentrate on familiar standards, but the band prefers playing original compositions over the standards. Plus, their broad musical tastes make it more difficult to categorize the band, which, in turn, can hamper efforts to market the band.
Still, the challenges the guys are facing as they work on their craft pale in comparison to the difficulties Frankie has been facing as he works through life-threatening health problems. Fortunately, Frankie's recent surgery has been a success and Richard reports that he is gradually gaining strength. They hope to have their bandmate back onstage and behind the keyboards soon. Not only does Frankie's funk-infused style of Blues and his spirited showmanship give the band a different dimension on which to lean, his infectious sense of humor helps to keep things interesting.

Even with his absence and the band's increased focus on acoustic performances, Frankie's impact on the group is still being felt. After all, it was Frankie who convinced Richard that he should bring Pat onboard as bassist. In addition, it was Frankie's limited availability due to his health that prompted Richard to look for a second guitarist who could help fill the considerable void left by Frankie. Pat suggested Rick Roadman as a prime candidate for the position and, after just one listen, Richard knew that he had found the artist for the job.

Both Richard and Pat speak highly of Rick's talents, not only as a guitarist and vocalist, but also as a songwriter. Pat refers to Rick as "a scary guitar player and a scary songwriter." But, Rick's ego hasn't grown commensurate with the development of his skills. Because of Rick's modesty, the others have a hard time getting him to share his songs.
There are interesting parallels and contrasts in the backgrounds of the band's members that no doubt have helped fuel their musical collaborations. Richard and Pat were both exposed to a variety of traditional American music forms as they grew up in middle America, Tennessee and Missouri, respectively. These locations brought them within listening range of such places as New Orleans, Nashville, Memphis and Kansas City. As a result, they could tap into the latest happenings in Country, Folk, Jazz, Blues and Roots Rock. Of course, these experiences had different impacts on the two of them and, while Richard seems to have been drawn to traditional styles, Pat sights "teen angst" as the primary influence behind his songwriting.

Both Richard and Rick Roadman were drawn into singing at early ages by their moms. They both sang in church choirs and were influenced by the hymns and Gospel they experienced there. Not surprisingly, both wound up having strong interests in Country music.

Richard, whose mom sang opera, was classically trained and started on the piano at an early age. Later, he moved to a slightly more mobile string instrument, the bass, and started leaning toward Jazz. He played Jazz bass and sang harmonies while in high school, aspiring to find his way into smoky Jazz clubs where he could strum his way through those walking bass runs, a la Jazz-great, Leroy Vinegar. But, Richard's days as a bass player ended when he found the instrument simply would not fit in the VW beetle he had bought. It was time to move on to something more compact, so he turned to the guitar.

Richard has always considered himself primarily a vocalist and his first gig with a Blues band was singing with Kate Sullivan's group out of Salem. That was shortly after he first ventured to Oregon in response to an invitation from a friend to come out west and revive a Bluegrass band they started back in Tennessee. Fortunately for Blues fans, the Bluegrass gig failed to materialize and Richard turned to R&B. It was when Richard was asked to play guitar in Kate's group that he went out and bought that first electric model.

The Richard Day-Reynolds Band

Rick Roadman doesn't share the classical training that Richard experienced, but has also found inspiration from an eclectic set of musical performers. Rick is originally from the Portland area, although his family moved away while he was still quite young and the community he knew as a child is long gone. They lived in Progress, near what is now Washington Square. As Rick explains it: "Highway 217 goes over right where we lived…Back then it was forest and fields and a two-lane blacktop." But, Rick's father worked for Western Union and the family moved around a lot, so Rick grew up all over the northwest, from Eugene to Everett, Washington to Billings, Montana, with several stops in between.

Rick initially took up the cornet as a child, but after the British invasion, he switched to electric guitar and in high school, he became interested in the Blues through friends. He listened to a variety of different Blues artists and mentions Taj Mahal and Johnny Winter as two significant early influences. Just as Rick has called many places home, he has developed an affinity for many different musical styles. When asked about his influences, he lists such diverse names as Jerry Jeff Walker, Lowell George and Tom Waits.

In 1975, Rick headed out on the road with the Stone Johnny Mountain Band and continued with the group for eight years. Although known as a Country Rock act, they got into a variety of music, including the Blues. Of course, Southern Rock has always been heavily influenced by the Blues anyway. Stone Johnny Mountain recorded a CD in 1981 that included some of Rick's compositions. After Rick settled down in Portland, he began playing regularly with several different local Blues acts, including such groups as Francine West and The High Speed Wobblers, Kinzel & Hyde, Joan Jones, Mel Solomon and Norman Moody.

Pat Counts' bass playing creed of "simple but brutal" doesn't quite seem to fit when one listens to him perform with the band during both their acoustic or electric gigs. He lays down solid bass lines without a hint of the heavy-handedness that the term "brutal" would imply. However, one can imagine that the motto was more apropos to his musicianship when he first traveled to Portland in the late 1980s with a New Wave band.

The New Wave gig began to unravel when the group's drummer got sent back to Missouri for a parole violation and things reportedly became weirder from there. Fortunately, Pat was enticed into a club in Portland one night by the sounds of some inviting music and wound up falling in with what he affectionately terms "the wrong sort of crowd," i.e. Blues musicians. He hooked up with such "bad influences" as Stu Kinzel, Dave Hoover and Johnnie Ward and began playing with Johnnie and the Jokers. Subsequent musical associations have included stints with Margo Tufo and Yo & De Cats. Pat has also teamed up with Rick Roadman as part of Francine West and The High Speed Wobblers and to back Mel
Solomon.

Like Richard, fiddle player Phil McCoy was classically trained and gravitated towards Jazz. Similarly, he enjoys a wide range of music forms, including Country, Bluegrass, Swing and Blues. Recently he has taken up the mandolin and occasionally straps that instrument on while playing with the band.

Whether playing as an acoustic or an electric act, the Richard Day-Reynolds Band has become a mainstay of the Portland-area Blues community and has garnered several Muddy Award nominations. Staying true to their roots while pursuing artistic growth, the group offers an original interpretation of traditional American music.

– Ken Condit