Richie Reinholdt A little Q&A with Richie Reinholdt, singer, songwriter and guitarist with The Acousticals and The Country Kings. Leicester Bangs: Tell us a little about yourself. Richie: I've been straddling the fence for a long time between writing and performing my own material and playing in cover bands. Usually the cover bands afford me the time to do my own stuff make records. My "Acousticals" band formed out of a traditional bluegrass band I worked with for 12 years. Myself and the mandolin player were longing to do something different. Using the bluegrass sound and approach to do more contemporary-lyric driven material. My “Country Kings” band developed out of a band project I started a few years ago called "Riche and The Rocketdogs" with a CD by the same name LB: How did you start out making music? Richie: I grew up in the Mojave desert of California, not far from Bakersfield and have always been drawn to the roots-country sound. Even through the Beatles and Hendix years... I grew up playing guitar in bands throughout my high school years LB: Who did you grow up listening to and how do they influence what you’re doing now? Richie: My first and still biggest influences are The Everly Brothers. Then of course, The Beatles and Jimi Hendrix, but, again always drawn to Buck Owens and the country side of rock... Buffalo Springfield and all it's incarnations... Crosby, Stills and Nash... Poco... Neil Young... and then Bob Dylan, The Band... Gram Parsons... The Flying Burrito Brothers. I also got very into the Bob Marley years and the early rock-steady sound. LB: Tell us about your latest release. Richie: My latest is my trio, The Acousticals with 11 new songs. I feel that my writing has come a long way and these are definitely my best to date... pretty bare-bones approach to recording with the exception of "Don't Ask The Wind" which I did take some liberties with over-dubbing three guitars and a couple of mandolin tracks. LB: Do you get out and play your music live, and if so, what can an audience expect at one of your shows? Richie: I perform, on the average, three nights a week with my various bands... mostly with my Country Kings band which is an electric alt. country band. I do solo shows as well as shows with my Acousticals trio, although we are in the process of working in a new bass player... and I also play with a 50's and 60's show band called "The Bop-A-Dips" LB: What aspects of playing and recording music do you most enjoy? Richie: Tough question, this one... I do love playing a sweaty-thumping-dance-crowd club as well as a quiet listen concert. I like pretty much all aspects of recording, from the initial tracking to mixing and mastering LB: Where can people find (and buy) your music? Richie: The Acousticals have a MySpace page (link below)... Also CD Baby. www.myspace.com/theacousticals