Wherefore Art Thou Buckner? (redux)

Here’s an in-depth recent interview with one of my favorite songwriters, Richard Buckner. The piece is quite revealing about Richard’s current life situation and I have to wonder which small “Upstate N.Y.” town he is living in. (Read below for the update!)

My first RB experience was at the Larkin in Albany, N.Y. in October 2001. He shared a Sunday night show with Anders Parker(which actually became a bit of a Varnaline “reunion”) and knotworking. Couldn’t have been a more excellent night. After knotworking’s opening set, Buckner set up his Danelectro guitar and an acoustic. Then it was wave after wave of lyric after lyric - some abstract, some obtuse, but all poignant, cutting and real.

Here is a (super budget) picture from that night:

Fast forward to 2008.. Richard has spent years on the road, releasing a few records on different labels, the most recent being “Meadow” on Merge Records. While his work has never been “mainstream” or even close to resembling something “popular’, but there was always the hope that his music was strong and true enough to be supported. Here’s a quote from the article:

Everything’s kind of dried up for me. My label [Merge] doesn’t want to put out a record until 2009 or later, and my booking agent doesn’t want to book me too much until I get another record out. So I’m going to learn a new trade and start a new life and make a record whenever it happens. I can’t really depend on music anymore as a way of making a living.

Kind of a bummer, eh?

After craving to hear that Larkin show one more time, I was miracled an excellent audience recording of it from a friend of a friend. Here I’ll share the first note I’d ever heard of Richard Buckner on that night in October 2001… “can I keep this buzz around?…”

Lucky Buzz - Richard Buckner (Live at the Larkin - Albany, N.Y. 10/01)

(Thanks to the original taper — I’d credit you but I don’t know who you are!)

*UPDATE* - Here’s another article where Buckner vividly describes his new home in East Kingston, NY.