Born December 5, 1932, in Macon, Georgia, the third of twelve children, Richard grew up dirt-poor in the segregated South. His father Charles “Bud” Penniman was a church deacon by Sunday and a bootlegger by night; his mother Leva Mae was devout. One leg shorter than the other, nicknamed “Lil’ Richard” and mercilessly bullied, he found refuge in the Pentecostal church, banging on pots and pans and singing so loud the preacher once told him to shut up during service.

At 14 he was already hustling: selling Coca-Cola at the Macon City Auditorium, performing drag as “Princess LaVonne” in medicine shows, and soaking up gospel giants like Sister Rosetta Tharpe and Mahalia Jackson. By 1951 he’d won a talent contest in Atlanta and cut his first sides for RCA Victor – polite jump-blues that went nowhere. The world wasn’t ready.

Everything detonated when Richard walked into Cosimo Matassa’s J&M Studio in New Orleans on September 14, 1955. The session was flat until, during a break, he jumped on the piano and tore into a filthy, obscene version of “Tutti Frutti.” Producer Bumps Blackwell freaked out, called lyricist Dorothy LaBostrie, and fifteen minutes later the cleaned-up but still nuclear “A-wop-bop-a-loo-bop-a-lop-bam-boom!” was born.

What followed was the greatest two-year run in rock history:

• “Tutti Frutti” (1955) – instant No. 2 R&B hit, covered by Elvis and Pat Boone the same year.
• “Long Tall Sally” (1956) – so fast Pat Boone couldn’t keep up.
• “Rip It Up,” “Lucille,” “Jenny Jenny,” “Keep A-Knockin’,” “Good Golly Miss Molly” – every single a detonation of falsetto screams, pounding piano, and Lee Allen’s sax from hell.
• Here’s Little Richard (1957) – the first true rock ‘n’ roll album, now in the Library of Congress.

Richard’s band, The Upsetters, featured monsters like drummer Charles Connor and guitarist Jimi Hendrix (briefly, in 1964–65). Onstage he wore pancake makeup, pencil moustache, six-inch pompadour, and sequined suits, climbing on the piano, throwing clothes into the crowd, and leaving teenage girls (and boys) in hysterics. He was the first true rock ‘n’ roll wild man.

In October 1957, at the peak of fame, Richard saw a fireball in the sky (actually Sputnik) and took it as a sign. He threw a $10,000 ring into Sydney Harbour, enrolled in Bible college, and quit rock ‘n’ roll to become a minister. The next decade was chaos: gospel albums, preaching, then sudden returns to sequins and sin.

He came out as gay in the 1950s, then renounced it, then embraced it again. He married Ernestine Harvin (1962–64), adopted a son Danny, and later lived openly with partners while still preaching. “I am the originator, the emancipator, the architect, and also omnisexual,” he declared in 1995. The contradictions were the point.

The 1960s and 70s saw glorious returns: the 1964 tour with The Beatles (who opened for him and worshipped him), Jimi Hendrix as his guitarist, explosive European packages with the Rolling Stones. In 1969 he played the Atlantic City Pop Festival and Toronto Rock ‘n’ Roll Revival, proving the voice was still supersonic.

The 1980s brought the final coronation: induction into the very first class of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (1986), a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award (1993), and the unforgettable scene in 1988 when he presented at the Grammys and shouted, “I have never received nothing! Y’all ain’t never gave me no Grammy, and I been singing for years! I am the architect of rock ‘n’ roll!”

He was right.

On May 9, 2020, at age 87, Little Richard died at his Tennessee home from bone cancer. His last public words were classic: “I’m not dead yet!”

Without Little Richard there is no:

• James Brown (who stole his entire stage act)
• Otis Redding
• Prince (who worshipped him)
• Paul McCartney (learned to scream “Woooo!” from “Long Tall Sally”)
• Jimi Hendrix (learned showmanship in the Upsetters)
• David Bowie, Mick Jagger, Freddie Mercury, Elton John – every flamboyant frontman owes him royalties

The Beatles, the Stones, Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, and every garage band that ever plugged in owe their existence to the Georgia Peach who screamed the blues into the atomic age.

He wasn’t just influential. He was the big bang.

Happy 93rd, King and Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll.

Shut up – the architect is still speaking.

And we’re still listening.

“GRIST” is the second in a new series of 30 song double albums, following up “IN ALL MY NIGHTMARES I AM ALONE”, which was itself just released on June 30th. Fans of Swans, 90’s and ‘blackstar’-era David Bowie, Sonic Youth, Skinny Puppy, Ministry, Nick Cave, Portishead, Chelsea Wolfe, The Stooges, Faith No More, Tom Waits and PJ Harvey should enjoy this strange yet cohesive collection. 

“GRIST”  hunts, laughs, mourns, challenges and inspires others to step into their true selves without fear. The themes are wide but related, with philosophy, mental illness, death of loved ones, addiction, spirituality, surrealism and dream language all playing strong roles. With themes like rallying baby bees for the swarm, the artist positions himself as the Queen, ready to move through chaos, come what may.

“Ram Dass famously stated that all life experience, trauma, transcendence, joy, suffering, is all just “grist for the mill of awakening”. That being said, here is the GRIST.”

GRIST stands as a beat-heavy, noise heavy riot crackling through the heart of the city, while also a testament to life, survival from nothing, a celebration, and statement for those abused or undermined, yet who posess an inner power that none can reach.

“This is a pure offering to my baby bees, my ones who know code red, my cubs who climb the mount, my bears who hold their post, my hyenas who crawl under dark of dark. This is for you, who face the weaponry, the cheap bravado, the false while grinding your teeth. Sharpening. This is GRIST. What we are is GRIST. OMEN.“

 

• Very happy to be asking you these questions, Dale. First of all, having grown up in the 70s, and having led a life full of musical milestones, how do you like to introduce yourself to others? And what would you say are the musical milestones you are most proud of?

First off, I would like to thank you for listening to our song. It really means a lot. It has taken a long time to reach this point. My life has been consumed by music from the time I was born. My parents were the main influence in sharing their musical tastes at an early age. Their diverse vinyl record collection kept me busy in the early 70’s with the likes of the Beatles, Johnny Cash, CCR, Neil Diamond, The Bee Gees, Abba to Gordon Lightfoot. The list went on. They would buy me albums like the Doobie Brothers, Eagles, Led Zeppelin, Cheap trick to Paul McCartney. I played Band on the Run to death! However, as I entered my teens and started exploring my own interests, and started fooling around on the guitar, I ventured off into the rock world with the likes of Led Zeppelin, Van Halen, Pink Floyd, AC/DC, ZZ Top, and Yes. These bands all helped shape me musically. However, by the time I hit high school in the early 80’s, and then throughout the rest of the 80’s, my tastes started to veer towards a more alternative vein with experimental David Bowie, REM, U2, and more of the outliers like New Order, Depeche Mode, The Cure, The The, Sisters of Mercy, Bauhaus to name a few. However, things changed when I completed a music recording course at UVIC in 1988, and this would be my musical milestone so to speak. I knew at that time that I would eventually do some writing and recording and producing of my own music. However, the technology at the time was expensive, bulky, and painstakingly time consuming using old reel to reel tapes. In 1991, I ventured into a career in Real Estate which is what I still do today, and music has always been a hobby along the way. It would take another 20 years before the at home technology began to emerge, and I started to realize this dream of creating my own music.

• Has it taken too long for you to get your home studio together and start recording? After listening to the song and watching the fantastically shot video I flew to Spotify to listen to more songs from you only to find none. Are you planning to release consistently from now on? Or is this a side project for you?

Yes, the journey to this day and the release of She’s Sowing Time has been a long time coming. My home studio was completed about 10 years ago. Prior to this, I jammed with several musicians over the years which helped me better my skills as a player. Fast forward to about 2013, and once I had amassed all the gear that I needed to record myself at home, I started writing songs and here we are today with the first official released song. It took the importance of this song to propel me to explore releasing it as a single, and the first step was to hire a professional videographer and Ted Kuzemski was my first choice. He shot the video and once it was completed, this gave me the confidence in taking the next steps to independently release the song. Also, technology has advanced along the way to allow it to happen now in 2023. That is why it is my only song that can be found on the streaming services. I do plan on releasing future songs as time allows, but this is still purely a side project and hobby.

• Am I correct in hearing a strong Bowie influence on the drums of ‘She’s Sowing Time’? That punchy groove and the particular timbre to the drums. Who would you name as your biggest influences when it comes to writing songs?

I have a lot of musical influences, but David Bowie is definitely high on the list. I do love a blend of electric and real organic drum sounds, combined with guitar, driving bass and lush old school synth sounds, and this song has a blend of all my musical tastes up to today. Moby is another influence for his layered piano and synth arrangements. There are too many others to name but if I was to name drop a few, I would include Tears for Fears, Echo and the Bunnymen, Depeche Mode, New Order, REM, Talking Heads, Velvet Underground, Iggy Pop, Peter Murphy, Beck, plus all the classic rock and pop bands I loved to listen to in the 70’s. This list could go on for hours.

Review – She’s Sowing Time by Dale Sheppard

• Talking about writing songs. What was the process behind writing ‘She’s Sowing Time’? The lush chorus and the skeletal verses. The pads and the effect on your voice. Where would you say these decisions come from? Are they just pretty and fitting to the theme? Or would you say they carry an integral part to the meaning behind the song and the words?

I usually start writing my songs by picking a drum track and tempo, and then recording a rough rhythm guitar track highlighting the verse and chorus. Then I add bass guitar and basic synth tracks to create the atmosphere. I try to layer several synth parts over each other to fill out the sound. Once completed, Kim provides the lyrics and I then set out to record my vocals to her words. The theme of this song was heavily influenced by Kim’s battle with cancer which influenced my vocal presentation and the special affects added to my vocal tracks. Kim has a wonderful voice, so I knew that our blend of vocals, once recorded, would create a full sounding chorus. Most of the decisions regarding the mixing stage come from trial and error and are constantly changing until each track complements the others. I try to keep the vocals up front and center. This song theme has urgency and struggle and a lot of emotions. Trying to create this atmosphere did take a lot of time finding the right balance for each track and for the final mixing of the song.

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• Taking the words from Kim after her battle with cancer must have been challenging. To write a piece of music that is worthy of such inspired words can’t have been easy. How did you approach this, and how did you decide that the music you came up with was worthy of such words that must have been quite personal to your family?

Yes, Kim went through an extremely tough time during her cancer fight in 2021, and she has now been cancer free for a year and a half, so we are all very relieved and grateful for this. Kim usually writes the words for my songs but after reading the lyrics to She’s Sowing Time, and adapting then to my musical composition, we knew we had something special. However, I really wanted to ramp up the production and instrumentation for this song, so I reached out to some friends of mine to add some additional tracks. The main keyboard melody was provided by Russ Ovans and the smoking lead guitar solo was provided by James Love. The final touch was adding real drums to the song, provided by Nicola D’Adamo, and his track was added to complement my existing electronic drum track to ramp up the urgency of the song while providing an organic human feel. I feel we accomplished what we set out to achieve.

• And finally, as a new fan of Dale Shepperd, what can we expect from you next? Radio shows planned ahead? More songs? An album by any chance? What do you have in store for us next?

I usually try to complete one song a year, so I hope to have another release to share in 2024. Regarding an album, I do have about 10 songs completed but the others are rougher demos, so they have not been officially released. If I get some time to complete those songs, and write a few more, I might have an album in me yet.

• Thank you so much Dale for taking the time to answer these questions. It has been my pleasure to ask them, and I truly hope that they are as engaging to consider and answer as listening to your latest single has been inspiring to me.

ALBUM REVIEW – LIT BY DAVID A

• Welcome David A for this exciting interview..

Thank you.  I’m excited to join you.

• How did you start your journey with music?

I was a school band geek, a junior high trumpet player.  I wanted to be the next Herb Alpert – seriously – until a buddy of mine got The Doors’ Strange Days album for his birthday and invited me over for a listen.  I was completely transformed.  I own that copy now, signed for me in person by Robbie Krieger, hanging in a frame on my bedroom wall.

• Tell us about your previous releases. Which one is the closest to your heart?

One thing my favorite artists have always done – the ones whom I believe deserve to be called “artists” – is make every album its own journey.  I like to think I’ve followed that example reasonably well. My favorite among my works?  Probably Sacrilege 2.0, my national breakout of sorts.  I got to collaborate with a lot of great musicians on that one in Florida and California – East Bay Ray, Mark Prator, Tim Mulaly, Rob Wegmann, Cleveland Dave Mathews, Chuck Lindo, Robert Wolffe and others, quite a lineup – and the whole project took on a more mature confidence than previous outings.

• Could you tell us How “Sacrilege 2.0” made such a big success?

Well, really it didn’t – not commercially, anyway.  It was a pretty fair critical and airplay success, though, and my most commercially successful album to that point.  I’m not sure how I’d attribute its relative success other than it was my return after several years away from music, and I think the fresh energy is palpable in the songs and performances.  Another big ingredient was just upping my game with better musicians, better songwriting, better singing, getting bold and reaching out to East Bay Ray and doing a couple tracks with him that helped put it on the map.  But most of all, it wasn’t a matter of going back to music.  It was a matter of grabbing it again and moving forward with it.

• So what is the story of the album “Lit” and what is the concept?

I really don’t think of it as having a concept, per se, other than just setting out to make an original, new rock album that pulls no punches and has no fear, one that puts legitimate expression first and then packs a wallop with it.

• Which track is the closest to your heart from “Lit”?

Depends on which day you ask me, but probably “Glamour Slain.”  It’s one of six from the album that have asserted themselves nicely on indie and college radio, but I think it best embodies the unbridled passion I feel, and my favorite songs are usually the ones I find most cathartic to sing.  “Prodigal Bastard” is high on that list, too, and since that’s my new video, that should be my real answer, right?

ALBUM REVIEW – LIT BY DAVID A

• How do you write your music? Tell us about the whole process.

I wait for inspiration.  Or put another way, I wait for the songs to write themselves, which is pretty much what they do.  Sometimes I think they’re more real than I am.  Generally, a whole line or even a whole verse or chorus drops into my head, and I sing it into the audio recorder on my phone.  On at least one occasion, I’ve dreamt a whole song (“Battleship”) and managed to remember it in the morning.

• You seem to enjoy keeping a musical company, How could you pick the musicians that participated in the latest release?

Rob Wegmann and I have been recording together since about 1990.  Really dating myself here, but we met when we were performing in different “new wave” bands in Tampa clubs in the ‘80s.  We hit it off on a personal level right away.  Snark attracts snark, I suppose.  We started recording together a few years later, and he’s been on every recording I’ve done since except for The Dharma Bums.  Three years ago, a music colleague put me in touch with George Harris, and I’ll be forever in his debt for that.  George’s reputation as a musician and sound engineer precedes him and for good reason.  George then dipped into his enormous pool of top-notch connections and brought in Angelo Collura, and presto!  I had the best ensemble I’ve ever worked with.

ALBUM REVIEW – LIT BY DAVID A

• How does it feel to be back on the charts?

Well, of course it feels great, but more than that, it feels like vindication and validation.

• What do you do besides music?

These days, not much.  I’m a former journalist and radio talk show host, and I have an interest in maybe returning to one or both of those pursuits in the near future – but I’d rather be touring.  Sounds like a bumper sticker, right?  Anyway, I’m more ensconced than ever before in delivering original music and staying upright in the stream of momentum I’m in with my current cohorts.  I’m already working on the next album, Vagrant Soul, with the same core band from Lit – George Harris, Rob Wegmann, Angelo Collura – and a guest list that so far includes T.C. Carr, Ronnie Dee and Fred Chandler.  We have the first four songs done, and I’ve never before been as excited about a work in progress.  We’ve consciously raised the bar for this one and given it its own flavor.  It won’t just be Lit over again.

• Who are your major influences? How did that affect the album?

Probably everything I’ve ever heard and really liked is in there somewhere, but as for my most major influences, the rock poets who shaped lyric writing.  So, Jim Morrison/The Doors, Mark Lanegan/Screaming Trees, Patti Smith, Jim Carroll.  I also put Bryan Ferry in that category.  Love Roxy Music, and that’s where some of my affection for sax comes from.  Otherwise, Dead Kennedys, Moody Blues, CCR, Iggy Pop, Alice Cooper (especially the original band), Springsteen, Lou Reed, John Mellencamp, James Brown, Led Zeppelin, David Bowie,  Ian McColluch/Echo and the Bunnymen, many others.  Some of those are just among my favorites and might not be overtly present, but I think they all weigh in here and there and make themselves known in often subtle ways that I’m not even always aware of.

• What is your favorite song of all time?

I don’t have anything close to one favorite.  There are far too many great songs out there for that.

• Any upcoming gigs?

None scheduled, but I’m beginning the process of making some happen soon.  I’m absolutely dying to perform again – especially with this band.

• Lastly, a word to your fans.

Thanks for joining us in fighting the good fight for rock!

ALBUM REVIEW – LIT BY DAVID A