Richmond Fontaine

Listening to Richmond Fontaine leads to daydreaming yourself away to the American West. The five-piece band from Portland formed around singer-songwriter Willy Vlautin, who is also an acclaimed novelist and thus knows to write songs that have a certain depth in storytelling. Richmond Fontaine’s musical portraits of troubled lifes, that take place somewhere between Nevada, Oregon or Mexico, have enthused more and more people outside the US (some even say that the band, rooted in a vast country tradition, have actually made themselves a bigger fan crowd overseas than in their home country); However, when Willy Vlautin and Dan Eccles perform „The Boyfriends“ and „We Used To Think The Freeway Sounded Like A River“ on this mild October afternoon in a rather unexcited sedate setting, their music easily takes you on a poetically rough and bittersweet journey that does not lack a sense of humor. „I ain’t like that“, the male protagonist in „The Boyfriends“ complains. He was on his way to bed with a girl, when he is interrupted by the appearance of her young son. Willy Vlautin interprets the The Boyfriends’ wails in front of an elementary school and squints in the fainting sunlight.