FRONTMAN by Richard Barone

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Richard Barone began his career at age seven as "The Littlest DJ" on a local, Tampa, Florida top-40 radio station. A chance meeting with Tiny Tim led to Barone producing recordings of the pop culture icon at age sixteen. Another fortuitous meeting, with the Monkees, led Barone to New York City, where he gained attentio...n as the frontman of The Bongos, the new wave band that ignited the Hoboken, N.J. music scene of the early 80s. Their debut album, Drums Along the Hudson, compiled from their first string of singles released on the U.K.-based Fetish label, instantly won favor on both sides of the Atlantic for its unusual combination of tribal rhythms, Beatlesque chord changes, and Sex Pistols overdrive. Stateside, along with comrades R.E.M. and a handful of others, the Bongos helped to create an exploding college radio market and amassed a fierce cult following. RCA Records took notice and signed the group. The ensuing disc Numbers With Wings spawned the hit MTV video of the title song, and the dancefloor smash "Barbarella." The follow-up, Beat Hotel, along with relentless touring, raised the Bongos' profile even further. They quietly split in '87, soon after Barone released his first solo album, Cool Blue Halo, recorded live at New York's legendary Bottom Line. A departure from the usual alternative rock format, its distinctive chamber pop backing of acoustic guitar, vibes, and cello highlighted Barone's lush voice, and became an instant college radio favorite that foreshadowed the 'Unplugged' movement. The next few years saw two more solo albums; Primal Dream (MCA, 1990) and Clouds Over Eden (MESA, 1994). Billy Altman, writing in The New York Times, called the latter work, dedicated to his late friend, rock journalist Nicholas Schaffner, "unquestionably the most fully realized effort of Barone's career." It saw the artist strike a balance between the chamber pop feel of Cool Blue Halo and the punch of Primal Dream. In 1997, he released Between Heaven and Cello (Line Records, Germany). Recorded live at NYC's intimate Fez nightclub, it gave his more recent tunes an appealingly stark Cool Blue Halo treatment. By the end of the 90s, the Barone had shifted his focus to co-writing, arranging, and producing other artists (including the B-52s' Fred Schneider, Jill Sobule, and many others). He is currently completing production work on the second album for Johnny Rodgers, featuring duets with Liza Minnelli and Ben Taylor. He was musical director and orchestrator for Bright Lights, Big City at the prestigious New York Theatre Workshop, and developed, directed, and performed in The Downtown Messiah, a modern interpretation of Handel's masterpiece performed live at the Bottom Line and beamed to over 200 public radio stations nationwide for six consecutive holiday seasons. He served as executive producer of the The Nomi Song (Palm Pictures, 2005), the award-winning documentary on the life of the late New Wave countertenor Klaus Nomi. As a songwriter, his songs and collaborations have been heard on television programs including The West Wing, Dawson's Creek, Felicity, South of Nowhere, and others. Recent concert productions include his sold-out, all-star tributes to Miss Peggy Lee at Carnegie Hall, the Ravinia Festival in Chicago, and the Hollywood Bowl, in 2003-2004. Other recent events include The (not so) Great American Songbook for New York's Central Park SummerStage, and his own eclectic series of performances at Joe's Pub at the Public Theater. In 2006, Barone and original Bongos reunited in the studio with Moby producing, to create bonus material for the special edition re-issue of Drums Along The Hudson (Cooking Vinyl). Several reunion concerts were held, culminating at an outdoor event in Hoboken, at which the band was honored by Mayor David Roberts with a Mayoral Proclamation and "keys to the city." Barone's memoir, FRONTMAN: Surviving the Rock Star Myth, was published on September 28, 2007 by Backbeat/Hal Leonard Books. A book tour followed, with guest readers including actress Joyce DeWitt and radio personality Vin Scelsa. On October 1, 2008, FRONTMAN: A Musical Reading was performed at Carnegie Hall, with special guest readers and performers including Moby, The Band's Garth Hudson, Lou Reed, Marshall Crenshaw, Mick Rock, Terre and Suzzy Roche, Randy Brecker, Carlos Alomar, his fellow Bongos, and other legendary friends and collaborators. Barone's forthcoming solo album, GLOW, is produced by Tony Visconti (Bowie, T. Rex, Morrissey) and a dream team of rock royalty, including Mike Thorne (Bronski Beat, Communards, Wire), Steve Rosenthal (Lou Reed, Monster Magnet), Steve Addabbo (Suzanne Vega, Shawn Colvin), veteran engineer Leslie Ann Jones at Skywalker Sound, and legendary tunesmith Paul Williams. The album features Barone playing the new Gibson HD.6x-Pro Digital Les Paul guitar, an instrument to which he contributed as artist consultant. GLOW will be released in a series of three-song EPs at the Apple iTunes stores worldwide, beginning in Fall '08, following a best-of collection, iTunes Essentials.