Richard Shindell

Richard Shindell

Richard Shindell is a folk singer-songwriter from Lakehurst, Buenos Aires, who divides his time between Buenos Aires and New York’s Hudson Valley. His writing is known for narrative songs and first-person character pieces, with songs told from the point of view of an INS officer and illegal immigrant in “Fishing”, a World War II soldier in “Sparrows Point”, a Confederate drummer boy in “Arrowhead”, an Argentine grandmother from Plaza de Mayo in “Abuelita”, and a power broker in “Confession”.

Shindell releases solo material from 1991 onwards and builds a catalogue that includes Sparrows Point, Blue Divide, Reunion Hill, Somewhere Near Paterson, Courier, Vuelta, Somewhere South of Delia, Not Far Now, 13 Songs You May Or May Not Have Heard Before, Tomorrow You’re Going and Careless. Somewhere Near Paterson, released on Signature Sounds, becomes his most successful release and helps establish his profile as a performing songwriter. Courier is a live release that revisits many of his best-known songs.

Collaborations and related projects

Shindell collaborates with Dar Williams and Lucy Kaplansky in Cry Cry Cry, a trio that releases an eponymous album in 1998 featuring songs by artists including R.E.M. and James Keelaghan. The group tours in support of the album before each member returns to solo work. Shindell and Kaplansky also appear together on stage. Joan Baez records three Shindell songs — “Fishing”, “Reunion Hill” and “Money for Floods” — for Gone from Danger and invites him to join her tour. His performance of “The Ballad of Mary Magdalen” with Cry Cry Cry is used in an ABC News Nightline report on The DaVinci Code. In Buenos Aires, he works with the Argentine group Puente Celeste to shape the sound of Vuelta.