Richard Shindell

10/09/2026

Tour starts tonight in Belmont!
From Richard's Substack (link in comments): Here’s a new song. Some of you might remember the music. It used to be called “Let’s Build a Fire”, posted here at the very beginning of this on-again, off-again Substack series. I was never happy with the original lyrics. I thought maybe the music was meant for something else.

Then one cold afternoon, my mother was in her garden. Nothing was blooming except for a few little sprigs of witch hazel, which she noticed. Quietly, almost to herself, she said: “The witch hazel blooms when nothing else will.”

I was lucky to have heard it. It felt like a gift, a one line poem, a glimpse into her deep connection with that place and the life she and her wife, Jean, had built there. There was no need to make a note of such a solid, beautiful English sentence—especially one voiced by my mother, and in that context, knowing the house was up for sale.

So “Let’s Build a Fire” is now “The Witch Hazel Blooms When Nothing Else Will”. I know. It’s a mouthful. But that’s the way she said it and that’s the way it’s going to be.

This rounds out the songlist for the new record. Now I can consider the record done, at least as far as the writing is concerned. On the recording front, it’s mostly done, though there are songs that need touching up in the studio. We should have those all done by the end of this month. Then we mix in late November.

But before that… I’m heading out on the road soon. US and UK. I hope to see you out there.

10/02/2026

Join Richard's Substack for a quick voice memo recording of PJ Harvey’s “You Said Something”. He says "This one has been in my permanent playlist for a very long time. It’s brilliant—all the space around the words, the images, the pacing, her vocal delivery, that strummy electric throughout. And I love a waltz. The whole thing revolves around all that doesn’t get said, summed up in Harvey’s leaving us to imagine the “something” someone said. The song will appear on a record of covers I’m working on (concurrently with the ongoing project of original songs, which is pretty much done, I swear). Tour info below. Go to a show. Let’s be three dimension personages in rooms together!" - RS Team

08/11/2026

✨ Just Announced ✨ Shindell is coming to The Bur Oak on October 19!

Doors 7PM / Show 8PM
Seated Show
$25adv / $30DOS
21+
🎟 Tickets at theburoakmadison.com

Richard Shindell lives as both an immigrant and emigrant, crossing thresholds, that informs his illumination of the human experience through narrative song. Shindell has inhabited a Zen Buddhist monastery and busked in the streets of Paris.

Originally from New York, now living in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Shindell is a writer whose songs paint pictures, tell stories, juxtapose ideas and images, inhabit characters, vividly evoking entire worlds along the way and expanding our sense of just what it is a song may be. Meticulously recorded over three years in New York and Buenos Aires, his most recent release, Careless, offered an ambitious, luxurious, full- length statement. Shindell immersed himself in the studio, allowing the time and latitude to explore, experiment, take risks—to play—as each of these eleven songs was given form and substance. While his signature acoustic guitar style is used to good effect, Careless also found Shindell plugging in more. “The wider sonic and dynamic range of the electric has been a real inspiration. Rejuvenating.”

During the pandemic, Shindell stayed in Argentina, out on the wide open Pampa, reading, writing, taking walks, doing a little experimental recording, and tending the garden. He now returns to the road for a limited number of performances. Innovative, original and occasionally spiritual, Shindell’s songs weave tales that interchangeably champion the downtrodden, exalt the disaffected or wax empathetic to those lost to society’s fringes. From lighthearted ballads and adulterous love songs, to dirges and diatribes that skillfully skewer politics, prejudice, war and religion, to the comic point-of-view of a cow stuck in a barbed wire fence, he has a unique ability to morph into the soul of the many and varied personalities he casts as narrators in certain songs—veritable novellas framed in haunting acoustic melodies.

08/11/2026

The Cedar Presents
Richard Shindell — All Acoustic
Sunday, October 18, 2026
Doors: 7:00 PM / Show: 7:30 PM
All Ages
Seated

Richard Shindell is a meticulous craftsman of song whose six studio albums and one live recording have been revered by critics and fans alike. Innovative, original and occasionally spiritual, Shindell's songs weave tales that interchangeably champion the downtrodden, exalt the disaffected or wax empathetic to those lost to society's fringes.

Get tickets: https://the-cedar-presents-richard-shindell-all-acoustic.eventbrite.com

05/02/2026

https://richardshindell.substack.com/p/93-richard-thompsons-52-vincent-black

Songs, poems, sentences, the odd paragraph. Click to read Richard Shindell: Words and Music, a Substack publication.

04/24/2026

TONIGHT at 8: It's the marvelous Antje Duvekot and splendid Richard Shindell lighting up our stage!

04/22/2026

Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts this week.

04/16/2026

The hotel website offered a room “with partial rock view”.

So many questions. What rock? And are we talking about a partial rock or a partial view? Is it the kind of rock that justifies an extra six bucks per night? Intrigued, I sprang for it. Seemed like a reasonable price to pay to solve the mystery.

I’m happy to report that I now have an objectively partial view of a rock (and a wholly impartial view of the parking lot, a fence, and two garbage bins).

But Morro Bay is a lovely town. This morning I roved out in search of good coffee, found it, then wandered into a very cool vintage clothing store. I bought a “Ringo for President” button. Then it was more coffee and back to the hotel to rewire my pedal board and more gazing at what I can see of the famous monolith. I intend to get my money’s worth.

Tonight I’m playing in Ojai, CA. Then it’s onward to LA for a total of three more shows before returning to the East Coast.

April 16 Ojai Underground, Ojai, CA

April 17 McCabe’s, Santa Monica, CA

April 19 Yellow Door Concerts, Santa Ana, CA

Now back to that partial view…

04/07/2026

Management is always nervous about sending Richard to a guitar shop for fear he'll leave with more instruments than he had upon arrival. Join him at McCabe's Guitar Shop April 17 to see what transpires. - RS Team. Details in comment below.

Songs, poems, sentences, the odd paragraph. Click to read Richard Shindell: Words and Music, a Substack publication.

04/05/2026

Sorry: we've had to cancel the April 10 show at Side Door, Sacramento, due to unforeseen circumstances. All other shows are still on (link in comments to tour dates). [Image is of door in Murano, not Sacramento] - RS Team