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"The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side." Dr. Hunter S. Thompson  "It's a tough job, but somebody has to do it." David Stanowski To find older articles; use Search or Site Map |
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Monday 07 November 2005 J.D. Richards by
Jenna Ware
J.D.'s a "been there, done that, school of hard knocks, wouldn't have missed it for the world" kind of guy. But, just how does a Beaumont boy, a sickly child with bad eyes, who wasn't allowed to play sports get himself invited at age 17 to a Houston Astros try-out camp? And, just how does an 18-year old with no prior singing experience practice two weeks with a garage band & win a talent show outright? And, how does an otherwise semi-normal, run-of-the-mill, genius type end up becoming the self-proclaimed happy "old man of the seawall" and writing over 410 songs about Galveston, its history and its people? Find out here. Take the super-fantastic, one-minute bio tour of the musical voice of Galveston Island and future troubadour hall of famer, J.D. Richards. Ready? Set? Go! Picture it: The 60's, Beaumont, remember? Garage band. OK, J.D. gets in love, gets married & a baby comes along with the song writin' & the guitar playin'. Baby good. Marriage bad. Gets divorce. Moves to Corpus Christi to search soul, decides gotta do the music, moves to Nashville, does well, writes freelance, fallsinlovegetsmarriedgetsdivorced, gets picked up as a stringer or whatever they call those guys that get a weekly paycheck. Sells songs. Hit artists like Kathy Mattea sing his songs. Dean Martin was to record his song, "You'll Make Someone Else A Hell of a Wife", but unfortunately for everybody involved, Dean died. Oh, & I almost forgot, J.D. once again fallsinlovegetsmarriedgetsdivorced. Writes more songs. Sells more songs. Oh, & forget it, this is making me dizzy. Where are the babies? Oh, here they come. Falls in love. Gets married. Has babies! Writes songs. Sells songs. Loses feeling in left hand, cannot play guitar for eight and a half years. Gets divorced. Moves to Galveston, gets tricked into getting back into music by beautiful, sneaky daughter (who also introduces him to her friends with the stipulation that he not date ANY of them). Performs all over the island, writes songs like crazy, produces CDs like crazy, sings on The Seawall, rides bike on the seawall, loves his island life, misses his children, feels fortunate to love and be loved, tells everyone within earshot that "life is better when you're living on island time" & plays at the Captain's Table every Friday night and Sunday night! Whew! Glad that's over! P.S. the Captain's Table Restaurant & Palapa Bar is located ½ mile west of the Seawall on F.M. 3005 and P.P.S. I might have taken artistic license with the "love, marriage, divorce" numbers, but, in my defense, I really couldn't keep track.  J.D.'s
songs are stories and
pictures. He takes you on a trip every time. Maybe into the 1900 storm,
maybe into today's newspaper
("Don't
Call Me No Refugee");
could be down the Seawall
or out to sea; could be into
the heart
of a lonely person,
a loving parent, a beach stoner or a downtown drunk; find yourself
drivin' down Stuart
Road
at 95
miles an hour with
a beer in
your lap or at a
fancy beach house too late at night with a
pretty stranger
or alone out
on a
fishing pier. J.D.
goes and J.D.
knows. He listens to
people
and he catches
their emotions and their cadences and he plunks their stories dead center
into the rhythm of the surf and the salty,
not quite All-American,
air of Galveston.J.D. is every bit as much an island "character" as any you'll meet in his songs. He is a gifted, fun & funny, performer, who creates a rapport with widely diverse audiences & who spouts goofy JD-isms, such as "tomorrow always comes two days after yesterday", and "I don't believe children should be obscene and not heard". He draws his audience into the "now" and into his song stories. All the locals sing along and demand "politely" (providing they've been taking their meds properly) to hear their favorites. So, get over to the Table to hear, see & meet the guy as soon as possible and get your own inscribed J.D. CD for a perfect Christmas or Hanukkah gift. You can also hear J.D.'s music and view the lyrics at http://thejdzone.tripod.com. You can purchase J.D. music via the website, at Island Music on 45th Street, at SunCoast Books (just past the Captain's Table on F.M. 3005). You can do all of the above and hire J.D. for your holiday get-together by contacting him at 409-744-1768 or islandwriter@wt.net. P.P.P.S. The innate nature of this island is that of a cat, you can't own it, you can just love it, if it'll let you, and pet it, if it'll let you and, one thing is sure, the island purrs for J.D. Richards. As he says in his song, "Galveston's more than a Glenn Campbell song".  Jenna
Ware is a local writer covering the colorful life forms
that
exist on this large sand bar out in the Gulf of Mexico.Many thanks to her for this insightful article on local singer/songwriter J.D. Richards! $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
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