RICHMOND FONTAINE

'Richmond Fontaine' is a four-piece alternative country band based in Portland, Oregon, United States.
The band was formed in 1994 by guitarist / lead vocalist Willy Vlautin and bass player Dave Harding at the Portland Meadows horse race track. Many of the band's songs relate to horse racing or casinos. Richmond Fontaine first started out working the Pacific Northwest live circuit on the back of their first three albums released on Cavity Search Records and down into Texas with friends in the band Grand Champeen. They have worked with a variety of musicians and a few labels over their career.
The band self-released their fourth album, ''Winnemucca'', which started to get them noticed outside of the U.S. Their big break happened in Europe during 2003 with signing to Decor Records and receiving two Albums of the Month in ''Uncut'', which declared both their fifth studio album ''Post to Wire'' (2004) and sixth ''The Fitzgerald'' (2005) masterpieces, unheard of at this time for an unknown band. They have since gained popularity across Europe but like many bands in their genre past and present such as Willard Grant Conspiracy, The Gun Club, and Green on Red, Richmond Fontaine are more popular abroad than in their own country. Their songs consistently evoke lyrical imagery [1] [2] of Reno, Nevada, Portland, the Western United States and Mexico while telling stories in a style that has been compared to Raymond Carver.[3] Musically the group has cited influences such as Gram Parsons, X, [4] Green on Red [5] and Dave Alvin [6]. Lead Singer and songwriter Willy Vlautin has recently published his first novel, ''The Motel Life'', and the band's new album ''Thirteen Cities'' is receiving positive reviews across Europe. ''The Sun'' newspaper has put Vlautin's writing on par with that of Bruce Springsteen, Tom Waits, John Steinbeck and Carver.

Contents

Current band line-up

Discography

External links

Current band line-up

★ Willy Vlautin: Vocals, Acoustic & Electric Guitars

★ Dave Harding: Bass guitar, Electric Guitars, Vocals

★ Sean Oldham: Drums, Percussion, Vibes, Vocals

★ Dan Eccles: Guitar

★ Paul Brainard: Pedal Steel, Piano, Vibes, Acoustic Guitar, Vocals

Discography

★ ''Safety'' (1996)

★ ''Miles From'' (1997)

★ ''Lost Son'' (1999)

★ ''Winnemucca'' (2002)

★ ''Post to Wire'' (2004)

★ ''The Fitzgerald'' (2005)

★ ''Obliteration by Time'' (2006)

★ ''Thirteen Cities'' (2007)

External links

★ Richmond Fontaine (official website)

★ Video of live Richmond Fontaine show

★ Short review of ''Thirteen Cities'' on The Wheel's Still In Spin