While The $RichyRich$ blues band became official in late 2017, it goes back a little further than that. Rich and Brandon started their musical journey in 2012.Playin a mixture of classic rock ,blues and hard rock with various drummers and various bands. In 2015, while in the band maximus, Rich, Brandon, and the drummer at the time, were put in a situation where they needed to fill some time at a gig. After 30 minutes in the parking lot coming up with 10 song list, someone asked "what are ya gonna call it?", .."just call it the RichyRich band", a nickname Rich has had since childhood, makes sense.Rich and Brandon would play sparatic shows under the RichyRich name with different drummers for the next couple years.

       It wasn't until 2017, while Rich was in a band called The R&R Guitar factory, with bass player Greg Mueller, who brought it to Rich's attention that he played the blues songs way better than the harder stuff."Its in you".So Rich and Greg snagged drummer mikey peterson and started a side band of all blues and blues rock. And The $RichyRich$ Blues band was born.Rich convinced Brandon to pick up playin the keyboards, adding the final element the band needed.

        In 2019, the band was in full swing. Playin 2-3 weekends a month during that summer\fall. In 2020, came the pandemic, The band still was able to squeeze in a handful of shows. With alot of downtime, the band turned to the internet to keep the flow going. They joined up with Erock, a Dj for an internet radio station Asguard radio. Doin live podcasts almost weekly. In this buisiness, word of mouth is everything, Erock is a big supporter of local artists, and gave the band exposure to music fans outside of the area the band was playing. It was also during this time that the band met Brian Jobe, a radio DJ for 93.9 out of Keokuk Iowa. 93.9 plays a huge role in the area local musicians. With shows like Big Dons local Roundp and Brians man cave, largely based around local music, playin their songs, interveiws , promoting live events, even doin a local music top 20 countdown, where fans can listen and vote. In Rich's eyes, it became a goal..

      As the pandemic was taking hold on everything, Rich and his better half Becky, were closing on their  first home together. A nice cozy little spot with a 30'x30' garage. In which Rich saw as an opportunity to build his dream home studio. Taken advantage of the downtime during that spring\summer, like it was fate, Rich was able to put The RichyRich studio together. Which can be seen in the video for KC VOODOO. By the end of 2020, the studio was up and operationable .

       The beginning of 2021 saw things start to get back to some kind of normalcy. With the studio ready, Rich got the band in and recorded a cover of Stevie Ray Vaughn's "pride and joy". And Rich was also starting the writing process, First song to be recorded was KC VOODOO, an older song that Rich and Brandon had written a few years prior. Only meant to be a demo to test the recording operation. They felt that maybe it was good enough to put out there. It was posted in june"ish", It got a great response. moving up and down the previously mentioned top 20 local countdown on 93.9 keokuk radio. Reaching as high as #4. They followed that up in september with band recording of Pride and Joy. Recorded as an anniversary gift for Becky. Again, they felt it was good enough to put out there. Where KC VOODOO had more of a classic rock feel, Pride and Joy helped "steer the truck" down the road the band is wanting to travel. 

      By the summer of 2021, the band was back in full swing again, playin 2-3 weekends a month. Trying to branch out a little further than they usually play. Whether it was the full band, or Rich and Brandon doing acoustic shows, they had a full schedule. Any working musician will tell you, its not all partying and rocking out. The rehearsals, the traveling, the set up, the tear down, the traveling, it all takes a toll. Guys like Greg and Mikey, have been doin that for 3+ decades. So in october, due to health concerns, roadware, etc., Rich had to make the very difficult decision to part ways with Greg and Mikey. He considered them family, but in order to try and kick this up a notch in 2022, it had to be done.

        Thats where Gary Osborne entered the picture. A drummer from Abington,ILL. Gary came in and stepped right up. Impressing Rich with the way he worked hard to get the set list down so the band didnt miss any shows. Brandon stepped back up temporarily to play bass. the band is currently workin in Jeffery Arntzen on bass and hope to debut him in Febuary of 2022. 

          The band is starting 2022 off with bang, By releasing the 3rd recording out of the RichyRich studio, Steppin Stone. The band is hoping that is the start of the next phase, becoming an original band.

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               to be continued...