JD Richards

I'm back to writing every night and after adjusting the neck on my guitar, I'm playing better every day. I've had two stretches of little or no feeling in an arm and hand. 1st 1990-Early 1998 (Left) then 2011- November 2020 (Right). I basically had to teach a hand all over again twice. My wooden lady and I don't know when to quit. I played 45 minutes then an hour off for 8 hours tonight.

Thank you to my supporters. I will be posting new acoustic/vocal songs periodically in a variety of genres. Be safe my friends. jd

Greetings one and all. Thank you to those of you who were so kind with your words early on n1m. You encouraged me to present more of my songs. I'm all in. Probably, one of the few to try and jump-start a singer-songwriter career at 73 but here I am.

When I was writing in Nashville, I kept getting the same response, "This is a really good song but it fits you best. Why don't you record it?" 1980-1990 and I did not envision me as a country artist. I enjoyed getting a genre hat for the song I was writing then going back and getting a different hat for the next song. I was offered several indie recording deals and declined. From 1990-1998 I lost feeling in my left arm and hand and had extreme pain issues. 1998-2008 I found my musical home and played 5-7 evenings a week. then again I lost feeling in an arm and hand (Right side this time) and became a bed-ridden recluse surviving on pain meds (2011-2017). 2 four discs fusion procedures got me back feeling in both arms and all put the little fingeron my right hand. After the 1st fusion surgery, 2 bone grafts didn't heal properly and I experienced pain at a level I sometimes thought I couldn't tolerate.

I am lucky to not to have an addictive trait in my family tree. I took myself off all opiates and my painmangement dr put me on nerve pain medications after a friend told me about Pregabalin. In November of 2020, I moved back to the Texas Coast and cut back on all meds. I went from two 100mg capsules three times daily to 1 at bedtime.

My best friend takes me along to his karaoke shows and put a microphone in my hand and after 12 years of pain isolation and loss of feeling, I discovered I actually could sing better than before (I'm told). To my amazement, I picked up a guitar and am writing at a furious pace. I feel so blessed. My CD, "72", contains 20 full band original tunes in a variety of genres. It is available for download purchase at link and all of the major outlets. My physical challenges have kept me away from LIVE perform,or vocally.

The 1st new song I recorded with my new used Ibanez acoustic/electric brought tears of joy to my eyes. As I've heard before, I'll quit singing when they pry my cold, dead fingers off my guitar. God bless and be safe. me/jd

After 2 four-disc cervical spine fusion surgeries (2017 and 2019), some feeling returned to my right and all feeling to my left hand and I could play my guitar, so I've begun to write every day. At the end of 2020 I released my CD, "72", a collection of 20 originals. I re-mastered the CD and have released a much-improved product on May 12, 2021.

Instrumentalist, arranger, and producer; Doug Burtchaell of Houston plays everything on six of the tunes and I handle the other 14.

The title of the CD reflects my age when I completed 72. I fronted two rock bands out of Beaumont, Texas in the late 1960s, played solo in the 1970s, was a songwriter in Nashville in the 1980s, and again a solo performer on the Upper Texas Coast from 1998-2008. I had two long periods when I lost dexterity in my hands and could not play my wooden lady (1990-1998 and 2014-mid 2019). In addition to my link site, 72 will be offered at all the major sites plus.

I appreciate your support. Be safe and blessed.

“JD's songs are picture songs - story & image songs. Every time he puts fingers to guitar & mouth to microphone, link. takes you on a trip. You "travel" from pretty girls dancing to broken-hearted solitude, from living in a blue house on the beach to lovers silhouetted in the moonlight on the beach. You meet heroic Marines and tale-telling mariners, shrimpers, tourists, rich girls, barmaids & beach bums. You meet them on the beach, in the bars, in their heads, in their relationships, dancing, drunk, stoned. In the songs "The Storm" and "Marine Sulphur Queen," you meet people in a historic hurricane and in a historic shipwreck. And, as a bonus, you even get a glimpse into the very pretty mind and the very large heart of a certain seaside minstrel-poet. link. is a lovely, fun performer - a picker & a grinner & a terrible punster. His music is Texas Beach-Country-Folk and his voice can sound like soft beach moonlight, Texas high noon sun or midnight honky-tonk.”
Jenna Ware - Beach Sun

“This is the man who has captured the true essence of life on this large sandbar, in the Gulf of Mexico, in musical form. “ Galveston Music Scene 07 November 2005”

Galveston Music Scene Nov 2005
“Meet Singer/Songwriter link. Richards, The Troubadour of Galveston Island by Jenna Ware link a "been there, done that, school of hard knocks, wouldn't have missed it for the world" kind of guy. But, just how does a Beaumont boy, a sickly child with bad eyes, who wasn't allowed to play sports get himself invited at age 17 to a Houston Astros try-out camp? And, just how does an 18-year old with no prior singing experience practice two weeks with a garage band & win a talent show outright? And, how does an otherwise semi-normal, run-of-the-mill, genius type end up becoming the self-proclaimed happy “old man of the seawall” and writing over 410 songs about Galveston, its history and its people? Find out here. Take the super-fantastic, one-minute bio tour of the musical voice of Galveston Island and future troubadour hall of famer, link. Richards. Ready? Set? Go! ”
Jenna Ware - Beach Sun