Richmond Fontaine

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Richmond Fontaine is a four-piece alt country band based in Portland, Oregon.

The band was formed in 1994 by guitarist / lead vocalist Willy Vlautin and bass player Dave Harding at the Portland Meadows horse race track. Many of the band's songs relate to horse racing. Richmond Fontaine first started out working the Northwest live circuit on the back of their first two albums released on Cavity Search and down into Texas with friends Grand Champeen. The band self released their fourth album Winnemucca which started to get them noticed outside of the US. They have worked with a variety of musicians and a few labels over their career. Their big break happened in Europe during 2003 with signing to Decor Records and receiving two Albums of the Month in UNCUT Magazine which declared both Post to Wire (2004) and The Fitzgerald (2005) as masterpieces, unheard of at this time for an unknown band. They have since broke across Europe but like many fellow bands past and present, Willard Grant Conspiracy, Gun Club, Green on Red etc. are still not properly appreciated in their own country. Their songs consistently evoke lyrical imagery [1][2] of Reno, Nevada, Portland, the Western United States and Mexico while telling stories in a style that has been compared to Raymond Carver [3]. Musically the group has cited influences such as Gram Parsons, X (U.S. band)[4], Green on Red [5] and Dave Alvin [6].Lead Singer and songwriter Willy Vlautin has recently published his first novel The Motel Life and the band's new album Thirteen Cities is getting even more rave reviews across Europe. The Sun newspaper has put Vlautin's writing on par with that of Springsteen, Waits, Steinbeck and Carver.