Richard Buckner’s obscurity is partly due to the fickle music business, but also due to his decidedly different approach to songwriting and performance.
Over the years, Buckner has developed a following overseas in the U.K. and even recorded for a French record label for a while. Here in the United States, his music has been noticed by artists such as Justin Vernon of Bon Iver, who told Pitchfork, “(Buckner’s) words are just about a sound and barely about meaning, but I could find all these crazy meanings in there. In his song
‘Loaded
At The Wrong Door,’ there are lyrics that are totally heartbreaking and beautiful and heavy, but you really couldn’t say exactly what they’re about.”
Buckner’s latest album is last year’s Surrounded, featuring songs written with an electric autoharp and an octave-shifting pedal. One review described the recording with adjectives such as “Experimental AltCountry” and “Ambient Americana.” Buckner’s current tour is also promoting the remastered reissue of Buckner’s debut album, Bloomed, which came out 20 years ago. In press materials for the album (part of a reissue series from Merge Records, as the seminal indie label celebrates its own 25th anniversary), Buckner remembers recording the album in Lubbock, Texas, in about four days, after which he “flew back to San Francisco, dismembered the band and embarked on a tour that would last about 20 years — or a few days, if you count what I actually remember.”
Buckner does both acoustic and electric shows, but his gig at MOTR will be of the latter variety.
RICHARD BUCKNER plays MOTR pub Wednesday, July 23. More info
here .
This article appears in Jul 16-22, 2014.
