"This man has the
gift." So
said the late Utah Phillips, legendary figure in American folk music,
after hearing Richard Berman sing at the Kerrville Folk Festival's Ballad Tree
in 1992. And Richard has used that gift to write many songs that tell moving,
true stories. "Gil's Song", the song that prompted Utah Phillip's appraisal, is
the tale of a Wyoming sheepherder's one brief attempt at closeness and its
consequences. Humor, too, is part of Richard's performance, as in "Monopoly",
his first-person account of the power of that game on behavior, and "The Kids
Are Back", his take on the latest stage in family development, both songs from
Richard's second CD, Love Work and Play. His third CD, Dreamer,
included his first songs of requited love, "A Love Song" and "Here And Now" and
the haunting "The Fortune Told". Both Love, Work and Play and
Dreamer were chosen "One of the Best Folk Albums" of
1996 and 1998, respectively, by Rich Warren, host of "The Midnight Special" on
WFMT in Chicago, the longest continuously running folk radio show in the
country. Richard's 4th CD, Storied Lives, won the
2001 Just Plain Folks Award for "Best Traditional Folk" CD. It includes the
memorable, ironic story song "On the Mexican Coast", a song featured on the
compilation disks Artists for Change
and Songs for a Better Planet,
Volume II. 2005 saw the release of Holding
Hands which was chosen one the "Top Ten Albums" of the year by Maggie
Ferguson of WXOU and one of the eleven "Essential CDs" of 2005 by Bill Hahn of
WFDU.
Born in Brooklyn, New York,
Richard left the city to go to college in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He has lived
most of his adult life in Amherst, Massachusetts with his wife and two
children. Richard received an MSW and worked as a therapist for years with
children and families. He has also taught as a classroom teacher in the Amherst
public schools. Drawing on his experiences as a husband, therapist, teacher,
father and son, he has written songs that impart his understandings of people
and their situations in direct and compelling ways.
Richard
first received national recognition in folk circles for his work by winning the
1992 Napa Valley Folk Festival's Emerging Songwriters Contest. He went on to
win the 1995 South Florida Folk Festival's songwriting contest, was selected to
showcase at the 1997 Falcon Ridge Folk Festival and was chosen to do so again
in 2001. In 1999 Richard won the Sierra Songwriters Festival's songwriting
contest. In 2000 he was a finalist at The Wildflower Festival's songwriting
contest, the winner of the Rose Garden Coffeehouse Songwriting Contest and was
a finalist in the Kerrville Folk Festival's New Folk songwriting contest, a
selection that was repeated in 2001. In 2003 he won the Susquehanna Music and
Arts Festival's songwriting contest. Over the past dozen years Richard has
performed in coffeehouses, clubs, festivals and house concerts in the
Northeast, the Southwest, and California, and has toured in Ireland, England, Wales and Sweden.
Among the clubs he has played at is the Bluebird Café in Nashville, TN, where
he was selected to showcase in 1994 and came back to play again in 1996, 1998,
2001,2005, 2007 and 2009.
Richard performing "A Love Song" at Molly's Coffee Gallery Balbriggan, Ireland, March 2011
"Studio Session Live", HCAM-TV 8, July 2007 "Flowers In The Desert"
"Richard Berman is one of the most
gifted songwriters I have ever met. With a wry sense of humor, and topics most
writers don't dare approach, he weaves through musical genres with a master's
touch. Richard's songs defy labels like folk or pop-- they are simply songs you
must hear for yourself."
Tom Prasada-Rao
"Never splashy or outrageous,
Berman is the perfect fit for those quiet nights of contemplation. If you
aren't thinking about anything in particular as you slip his music into your CD
player, you certainly will be doing so afterwards."
--Kevin
McCarthy, Kevin's Celtic and Folk Music CD Reviews.
Read the complete review
"Berman is the greatest discovery
of the year. Every song here is a gem. These are haunted and haunting songs.
You will be singing them after two listenings."
--Moshe Benarroch Folk and
Acoustic Music Exchange, October, 1999.
"With an easily recognizable voice, Berman has continued his musical growth on
this CD. He employs excellent and appropriate musical touches with his songs
and his lyrical insights have continued to flower with each release. It's
interesting to a listener because, due to his presentation, even his most
jolting tunes have an air of subtlety."
--Kevin McCarthy, Kevin's Celtic and Folk Music CD Reviews. Read the
complete review
The idea
of doing a produced album with varied instruments was not an idea I came to
embrace easily. The purist in me wanted to make my second collection of songs
along the lines of my first, which was basically a live album done in a studio
with just my voice and guitar. But I wanted this second album to reach a larger
audience, and at some level, I felt the songs would have more appeal if they
had a richer musical setting.