Richard Pinney

I'm a songwriter and grateful to the many others, well-known and unknown, who perform my tunes, but none so special as my own son who does a few. The backup arrangements are with solo slide and fingerstyle guitar. In my background are brick and mortar record companies in Madison and Milwaukee, WI and Los Angeles. I'm now web and graphic designer and tech consultant with no regrets about the replacement of the old ways of distributing music with self-distribution. I believe in life-hacking.

Area Man Writes and Performs Own Music

Like the headlines in The Onion, my music focus is more local now. It makes more sense to just relax a bit and let this new site start fresh with what I'm actually doing now, not what I did in the past...kind of take it or leave it. Be vulnerable. have fun, return e-mails.

I am recording on my own workstation and with producer Paul Setser in his studio. My workstation is powered by Ableton Suite 8, a recording program especially well suited for songwriters and song demos. The ins are a Line6 interface and a tiny Behringer Xenyx mixer. Small footprint and simplicity, but I get the 2 preamps and good EQ. I also use my new Zoom H2 a lot. All this equipment is small. Like my music career.

thief steals guitar, does victim a favor

My two performing instruments were stolen by a local guy a few years ago. It was a game to him. I took him to court, but he wanted to go on Judge Judy and play it out on TV instead. I stayed with Small Claims. The perp actually told the judge he gave the instruments back to me. The judge sided personally with me, but legally I couldn't prove the negative that the guitar and banjo were not returned. I had to buy new instruments. I also had to learn to forgive the perp or be bitter.

I don't know which was the bigger gift, the deep lesson of deep forgiveness for a theft and betrayal or the replacement guitar I had to buy. The guitar was a smooth Seagull S6 from Canada that rapidly made me a better player on many levels. It brought back the joy I had been missing in music for a few years.

As to forgiveness, it figures in several of my new songs. I also have a great new friendly relationship with my ex. The seed for that, on my end at least, was planted by a stupid crime and its quirky resolution.

With the customized Fender FR50 resonator electric, a "gift" of a guitar thief (see story, right). The F-holes () are ridiculous and the cone is second rate, but a Quarterman cone is on order and Wade's Guitar will make it sing with the Telecaster and Fishman pickups.

New Music - listen here

These tracks come and go, depending on what I'm working on. Includes scratch trax, experiments and reference clips for my collaborators. There are a few older ones, too, that fans requested.