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The Bluegrass
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: no country for old men
Posts: 30,835
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Fritz Richmond, RIP
by Geoff Muldaur):
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FRITZ RICHMOND
Fritz Richmond was the undisputed all-time king and world champion of
the jug and the washtub bass; nowhere better demonstrated than by the
Smithsonian Institute's inclusion of Fritz's instruments in its
collection.
Fritz was born John B. Richmond, Jr. in Newton, Massachusetts on July
10th, 1939. He attended local schools in Newton and graduated from
Newton High School as a member of the class of '58.
Fritz's interest in homemade instruments started in late-1958 or
early-1959 when, with friends John "Buz" Marten and John Nagy he went
to Sears Roebuck to purchase his first washtub. Using a broom handle
and a piece of rope, Fritz was almost immediately able to playS and
play well. The boys formed a folk group called The Hoppers (named
because there were three Johns!), and performed in the local
Boston-area coffee houses.
Fritz continued to play the washtub through his term of duty in the
US Army (1959-61), during which he served as a helicopter mechanic in
Germany and Korea. Of note, and certain interest to afficionados, is
the likelihood that, to this very day, Fritz is the only member of
the US Army to have ever "played" a Quonset hut.
During his early days as part of the Boston and Cambridge,
Massachusetts folk music scene, Fritz provided his solid bass lines
for Eric Von Schmidt, Geoff Muldaur, Tom Rush, The Charles River
Valley Boys and many others. Fritz was a founding member of The Jim
Kweskin Jug Band (1963) and it was with that band that Fritz began
playing the jug. His unique talent was given nationwide attention on
US tours and national television with the Kweskin Band (Steve Allen
Show, Johnny Carson, Mike Douglas, Roger Miller, Pat Boone et al.).
After the Kweskin Jug Band disbanded in 1968, Fritz moved to Los
Angeles. He continued his life as a musician in LA, but he primarily
worked as a recording engineer with producer Paul Rothchild at
Elektra Studios. He engineered sessions for The Doors, Jackson
Browne, Bonnie Raitt, Lonnie Mack, The Everly Brothers et al. As a
musician during that period, he recorded with Ry Cooder, Brown, The
Doors and many more.
Since the late 1970s, Fritz lived in Portland, Oregon with his wife,
Cynda Herbold. He worked as a legal assistant at the law firm
Markowitz, Herbold, Glade and Mehlhaf and performed locally with his
jug band, The Barbecue Orchestra. He played during this time with
Bonnie Raitt, Bob Dylan, Ramblin' Jack Elliot, John Sebastian, Geoff
Muldaur and others, with recent tours of Europe and Japan. He also
performed several times on Garrison Keillor's A Prairie Home
Companion, where he once astounded the audience with his jug
performances, with The Turtle Isle String Quartet, of The Flight of
the Bumblebee and Eine Kleine Nachtmusik.
Fritz Richmond lost a year-long battle with lung cancer on November
20th, 2005.
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Damn it all to hell. I knew Fritz in Portland, late 70s/early 80s when it was one of my posse's West Coast hq's and Fritz was playing in my friend Dave Lightbourne's band, The Metropolitan Jug Band, which was great. We went out to hear them, often. I still have one of their gig posters.
So many Portland hipsters down, now, there might not be any left to visit by the time I ever get out there again.
RIP, brother. You brought a lot of pleasure into the world.
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