43 Facts About Richard Barone

Richard Barone is an American rock musician who first gained attention as frontman for the Bongos.

Richard Barone teaches the course "Music + Revolution" at The New School's School of Jazz and Contemporary Music, has served on the Board of Governors of The Recording Academy, serves on the Advisory Board of Anthology Film Archives, and hosts the "Folk Radio" show on WBAI New York.

Richard Barone has been called a "gifted pop-rock tunesmith" by The New York Times.

Richard Barone released his first solo album, Cool Blue Halo in 1987, prior to the Bongos' amicable breakup.

Amidst the music industry's growing fear of the then-new technology of digital distribution, Richard Barone appeared on The Wall Street Journal Report television show and other programs to explain and promote legal music downloading as a legitimate method of distribution.

Toward the end of the '90s, Richard Barone began collaborating with producer Tony Visconti.

From 1999 to 2004, Richard Barone directed and performed in The Downtown Messiah, a unique, multi-genre interpretation of Handel's baroque oratorio that was broadcast annually in December on over 200 public radio stations nationwide, and combined elements of pop, folk, blues, and jazz.

Richard Barone sang backing vocals on Visconti's version of "Mr Blue Sky" on the album, along with Kristeen Young.

In 2004, Richard Barone interviewed Quincy Jones for the PBS documentary Fever: The Music of Peggy Lee.

Richard Barone performed in The Blood on the Tracks Project in June at Merkin Hall, a multi-artist tribute to Bob Dylan's landmark 1974 album on its 30th anniversary.

Richard Barone was accompanied by Tony Visconti on bass, Vernon Reid on guitar, and Buddy Cage, who had performed on the original album, on pedal steel.

Also that year, Richard Barone joined 1960s folk-rock icon Donovan for a series of the latter's Beat Cafe concert events, including nine performances at New York's Joe's Pub, singing and reading excerpts from Allen Ginsberg's Howl.

Richard Barone collaborated with Schneider on songs for British pop star Sophie Ellis-Bextor.

In July 2009, Richard Barone entered the recording studio to complete work on the album he began at age 16 for performer Tiny Tim.

In Fall 2011, Richard Barone made a cameo appearance and performed a song in the film Mr Bricks: A Heavy Metal Murder Musical.

Richard Barone performed at a series of concerts with other artists on the Occupy album including Michael Moore, David Amram, and Tom Chapin.

Richard Barone served as music supervisor for the documentary, directed by David Giancola.

In June 2013, Richard Barone joined forces with Beach Boys co-founder Al Jardine and friends to record a version of Pete Seeger's folk anthem "If I Had A Hammer " for the ONE Campaign, produced by Steve Addabbo at the Shelter Island Sound recording studios in New York.

Richard Barone partnered with Alejandro Escovedo on March 14,2014, to produce and co-host the first major tribute to the late Lou Reed at the Paramount Theatre in Austin, Texas, as part of the SXSW Music Festival.

Richard Barone released a recording of Reed's "All Tomorrow's Parties" produced by Chris Seefried with a video by Jonas Mekas, assembled from footage of the early Velvet Underground at Andy Warhol's Factory.

In October 2014 Richard Barone launched "A Circle of Songs," a live, monthly musical talk show series at SubCulture, below the Lynn Redgrave Theater in Greenwich Village.

Back in the studio, Richard Barone produced an album for jazz singer Hilary Kole of songs made famous by Judy Garland and a various-artists holiday album for the Miranda Music label on which he appears, as well as a second album of recordings made by Tiny Tim, entitled Tiny Tim's America, released in summer 2016.

Richard Barone served as executive producer of Tiny, a musical based on the life of Tiny Tim; and produced a songbook album for composer Tracy Stark, released in October 2016 with performances by Lesley Gore, actress Karen Black, and Nona Hendryx.

Richard Barone contributed liner notes to a vinyl reissue of The Holy Mackerel, the debut of the 1960s band featuring songwriter Paul Williams, and to the 2018 reissue of Williams' 1970 solo debut, Someday Man.

Richard Barone would be re-elected for a second term in 2019.

In June 2018, Richard Barone would be invited by Martin to perform at the Friars Club as she was honored with the Trobairitz title.

On March 29,2018, Richard Barone performed in The Bowie Songbook, a reinterpretation of David Bowie's catalogue as part of the Brooklyn Museum's David Bowie Is installation.

The next week it was announced that Richard Barone had joined the faculty of The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music and was set to teach Music + Revolution, a 15-week music history course centered around 1960s Greenwich Village.

Richard Barone represented the New York Chapter of the Recording Academy for Grammys on the Hill in Washington DC, in support of the Music Modernization Act, an omnibus bill supporting the rights of music creators.

Richard Barone met with Senator Patrick Leahy, Congressman David Cicilline, Representative Joseph Crowley, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and the office of Senator Sheldon Whitehouse.

Richard Barone met with New York Representative Jerrold Nadler, key supporter of the Music Modernization Act.

In January 2019, Richard Barone accompanied Donovan in Jamaica to record a tribute album to Harry Belafonte.

Richard Barone photographed Donovan for the cover of the album's first single.

Richard Barone was the musical director of the project, which celebrated the American blues music that inspired the early Stones.

In 2020 Richard Barone made a cameo acting appearance, playing himself, in the indie film The Incoherents directed by Jared Barel.

Richard Barone appeared in the documentaries Tiny Tim: King for a Day and You Don't Know Ivan Julian.

Richard Barone performed "Streets of New York" on Willie Nile Uncovered, a tribute to the singer-songwriter, released in August 2020.

In tribute to another of his inspirations, Richard Barone performed a medley of "Revolution" and "Power to the People" for JEM Records Celebrates John Lennon, released on the 80th anniversary of Lennon's birth, October 9,2020.

Richard Barone contributed an essay about Pylon for the book included in the comprehensive Pylon Box vinyl box set released on November 6,2020, by New West Records.

On January 8,2021, David Bowie's cover of John Lennon's song "Mother," for which Richard Barone had sung harmony vocals with producer Tony Visconti at the original session in 1998, was posthumously released on limited edition vinyl and digital streaming on Parlophone Records.

Later that month, Richard Barone contributed two tracks to JEM Records Celebrates Brian Wilson.

On September 15,2023, at the invitation of Tony Visconti, Richard Barone performed at the all-star Marc Bolan 45th Anniversary Celebration Concert in London at O2 Shepherd's Bush Empire, where Visconti conducted the string section.

On November 13,2023, Richard Barone produced Mazzoni Center Honors Stephen Schwartz, an all-star, Broadway-themed gala held at the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia.