Richard Barone

Richard Barone
Richard Barone, performing at Carnegie Hall in New York City on October 1, 2008.
Background information
Born	Tampa, Florida, United States
Genres	Rock, pop, power pop, chamber pop, alternative rock, folk rock
Occupation(s)	Musician, songwriter, author, music director, record producer
Instruments	Guitar, Mellotron, keyboards, synthesizers, percussion, Stylophone, waterphone
Years active	1980s–present
Labels	MCA Records, Universal Music Group, Geffen Records, MESA/Bluemoon, Sony BMG, Bar/None Records, Passport Records, DigSin, The Orchard, RBM Special Editions, others.
Associated acts	The Bongos, Tony Visconti, Donovan, Alejandro Escovedo, Jill Sobule, Tiny Tim, Pete Seeger
Website	RichardBarone.com

Richard Barone is an American rock musician who first gained attention as frontman for The Bongos. He works as a songwriter, arranger, author, director, and producer, releases albums as a solo artist, tours, and has created major concert events at Carnegie Hall, Hollywood Bowl, SXSW, and New York's Central Park. He is also affiliated with NYU's Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music.

Barone was born in Tampa, Florida and began his career at age seven as 'The Littlest DJ' on a local top-40 radio station. By age sixteen he was producing recordings for local bands as well as Tiny Tim. Moving to the New York area, he modeled, got small acting roles, and finally gained attention as the lead singer and songwriter for The Bongos, a critically acclaimed new wave band at the center of the early 1980s Hoboken, New Jersey music scene. After their first string of independent singles, released on the UK based Fetish label and compiled for the U.S. as Drums Along the Hudson (PVC), the group signed to RCA Records where, with the advent of MTV, they made commercial impact with the Barone-penned "Numbers With Wings". He has been called a "gifted pop-rock tunesmith," and, stepping out as a solo artist, Barone's albums have ventured into chamber pop, orchestral, and more narrative singer-songwriter territory.

Barone released his first solo album, Cool Blue Halo (recorded live at The Bottom Line in New York) before The Bongos' amicable breakup in 1987. Anthony DeCurtis, writing in Rolling Stone, praised Barone's "spare, elegant arrangements" and credited him with fashioning "a kind of rock chamber music." While Trouser Press described the record as "intimate but confused,"NPR's Tom Moon, in a more recent assessment, called the album "a plaintive masterpiece," and credited Barone with foreshadowing Nirvana's Unplugged performance of David Bowie's "The Man Who Sold the World," adding "Cool Blue Halo feels timeless, and maybe even exotic."