Richie Lawrence & Katie Thomas

The Eclectic Music Wonderland of RICHIE LAWRENCE

Richie’s musical backdrop creates the foundation for the varied genres that weave through his songs — styles absorbed, refashioned and born anew.  Attending the opera with his grandparents at hometown Tulsa municipal theater; listening to country music permeating the Oklahoma airwaves; digging big band swing and Ray Charles with his father Richard Sr., also a pianist; older sister Jerry Lee and Elvis immersion; attending 1965 concerts featuring James Brown and The Rolling Stones; hanging with Chicago musicians and being initiated into the living blues, while first meeting and playing with Ray Bonneville in the ‘70s; moving to Los Angeles in 1980, meeting Paul Lacques, of I See Hawks In L.A. fame, and together forging a new wave polka music in Rotondi, as well as continued touring and recording with The Hawks on nine of their last ten recordings; Touring the world with cowboy folk music purveyors, Horse Sense; playing the Farmers Markets of the central California Valley with The Loose Acoustic Trio; and recently a renewed partnership with Ray Bonneville, touring and recording on his last three releases; and finally, uniting with wife, Katie Thomas, adding a luscious harmony and lead vocal to the latest solo recordings “Water” and “Rue Sanxay”, as well as live performance —

All define a rainbow of beautifully rendered song colors describing life’s myriad predicaments.  If there's a niche here, the category Americana comes to mind, but in the broadest sense of the word.  Enter the eclectic music wonderland according to Richie.