By Margit Resch
Special to The Island News
“Didn’t I? Didn’t I? Didn’t I?”
No, I will not tell you what Kim Richey, that wonderful songwriter, singer and guitar player, reveals in her intriguing song called, you guessed it, “Didn’t I?” I will not tell you what she did or didn’t do. I will not tell you what “Just My Luck” describes; what Kim means when she sings “That’s Exactly What I Mean,” or what “Those Words We Said” actually are.
You just have to come to the Fripp Island Community Centre on Sunday, March 26, and listen to Richey’s songs, to the beautiful lyrics that describe very personal, even intimate, yet universal relationship experiences, all embedded in moving, unforgettable melodies.
You have probably been in similar situations and can guess what these songs are all about. And you will have no trouble understanding both the stories and their spirit, because Richey writes “to and from the soul, never flinching from the conflicts and crushing moments, yet always finding dignity and resilience. Her arc of the human heart is true.” So raves Arthur Bowman.
Kim herself confesses that she is “not that good at making things up out of thin air.” Inspired by Joni Mitchell, “probably like most women songwriters of a certain age,” Kim describes her own experiences in her lyrics — her poems, really:
But the way things stood
I did the best I could
Didn’t I, didn’t I, didn’t I
Try to make amends
To be a friend
Didn’t I, didn’t I, didn’t I (Oops, I said I wouldn’t …)
“I loved being able to write songs because I was really super-shy. I couldn’t say things to people that I wanted to say. If I put it in a song, there was the deniability. If I ever got called on it, I could say, ‘Oh, heavens no, that’s just a song! I made that up.’”
Richey is equally as creative and personal with her compositions and delivery, swinging from country to folk, from blues to gospel, sometimes within one song, always expressive, warm and melodic.
Richey learned to play guitar while in high school in Ohio and, while studying environmental education and sociology at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green, she played in a band with Bill Lloyd. She then worked in nature centers in Ohio and Colorado, traveled to Sweden and South America, worked as a cook in Wellingham, Wash., and finally ended up in Nashville, where she did menial work to survive, and where she started — guess what — her music career. She soon found musicians to play with or to write for, musicians like Rodney Foster who turned her “Nobody Wins” into a No. 1 hit, or like Trisha Yearwood who sang “Believe Me Baby” and earned her a Grammy nomination.
I was thrilled to learn that Kim’s first concert took place 26 years ago in the Elbow Room in Columbia, because that’s where my friends and I hung out a lot. We loved the great bands from all over the U.S. that would play there. I probably heard Kim Richey there, too. Richey has since performed every year in hundreds of places all over the U.S. and more often than not in the UK, where she will play again this coming May.
Maybe she met Dean Tidey there, a fabulous guitarist with whom she is going to entertain us here on Fripp. Tidey is from the UK, where he played in band after band since he was 12 years old. For a decade he was lead guitarist in the acclaimed British band Feeder. He toured with U2, the Rolling Stones, Coldplay and R.E.M. He got a publishing deal with Sir George Martin, and he played in front of Jon Bon Jovi, Jimmy Page and Prince when his band honored Sir Martin.
It was a beautiful young tourist named April from Florida who lured Tidey from London to Tampa, where they started a family, and where he developed a successful career as a producer and local performer. After playing with Kim Richey, the Straz Center for the Performing Arts hired him as a Rock School teacher. What makes him so special is that he trains kids not only to master their instrument, but to get better and better and, above all, to write their own songs.
Now and then Tidey slips out of his teacher role and tours with his own band, Muddy Apes, composed of Take Hirose from Feeder and some Japanese rockers. They recorded an album, Crush It, where some lyrics are in English and some in Japanese. An intriguing mix. And, of course, Tidey plays and tours with other musicians, like his friend Kim Richey. “Didn’t I” tell you this would be a fantastic concert?
Richey and Tidey will perform — all in English — at 5 p.m., Sunday, March 26, in the Fripp Island Community Centre, 205 Tarpon Blvd. Admission at the door is $30 for adults (credit cards accepted), students free thanks to the Peg Gorham Memorial Fund. You are invited to a meet-the-artist reception after the performance, catered, deliciously, by Harold’s Chef Services.
This concert is presented by FIFOM and supported by the S.C. Arts Commission. It helps fund FIFOM’s Music-in-the-Schools program. See our website frippfriendsofmusic.com for more information. For reservations, call, text or email Vanessa Peñaherrera at 704-807-0255 or vandy116@gmail.com.
Want to Go?
Who: Kim Richey
What: Fripp Island Friends Of Music Concert Series
When: 5 p.m., Sunday, March 26
Where: Fripp Island Community Centre, 205 Tarpon Blvd., Fripp Island
Tickets: Admission at the door is $30 for adults (credit cards accepted), students free thanks to the Peg Gorham Memorial Fund.
More: Attendees are invited to a meet-the-artist reception after the performance, catered, deliciously, by Harold’s Chef Services. This concert helps fund FIFOM’s Music-in-the-Schools program. See our website frippfriendsofmusic.com for more information. For reservations, call, text or email Vanessa Peñaherrera at 704-807-0255 or vandy116@gmail.com.
