Richard Shindell

Richard Shindell Richard Shindell’s new album, Careless, represents the culmination of years of work, preparation, and growth.

Meticulously recorded over three years in Upstate New York and Buenos Aires, Argentina, Careless might be an anachronism: at a time when the very idea of the record-album is called into question—when technological developments and listening habits challenge its status as the natural vehicle of an artist's presentation of new material—Shindell offers us an ambitious, luxurious, full-length statemen

t. Accompanied by his co-producer Greg Anderson, engineer/arranger Scott Petito, and a group of A-list musicians, 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 here, Careless finds Shindell plugging in more. “Returning to the electric guitar has transformed my relationship with all aspects of my career,” he says. “The wider sonic and dynamic range of the electric has been a real inspiration. Rejuvenating.”

Careless exhibits a wide thematic range as well, from terrestrial to celestial. It begins with seven songs whose feet are very much on the ground: the roots-of-rock’n’roll lope and twang of Stray Cow Blues; the epic mea culpa and pop catharsis of the title track; desire both human and insect in the “summer garden” of Infrared; the ruminant, dystopian, blues-grazing Deer on the Parkway; recovery and reconciliation between a father and daughter, in All Wide Open; a vintage instrument infused with the spirit of a prior owner in Your Guitar; and Abbie, wherein the disappearance of a beloved pet is explained. And from there to the view from above: the ether of Atlas Choking, heaven itself in Before You Go, and geosynchronous orbit in Satellites. With its only cover, The Dome, the album ends where it began: firmly on the ground, beneath a night sky, wondering, awaiting clarification.

✨ Just Announced ✨  Shindell  is coming to The Bur Oak on October 19!Doors 7PM / Show 8PMSeated Show$25adv / $30DOS21+ 🎟...
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.

The Cedar PresentsRichard Shindell — All AcousticSunday, October 18, 2026Doors: 7:00 PM / Show: 7:30 PMAll AgesSeatedRic...
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

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.

The hotel website offered a room “with partial rock view”.So many questions. What rock? And are we talking about a parti...
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…

Management is always nervous about sending Richard to a guitar shop for fear he'll leave with more instruments than he h...
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.

Sorry: we've had to cancel the April 10 show at Side Door, Sacramento, due to unforeseen circumstances. All other shows ...
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

04/03/2026

Over the moon to be joining one of my songwriting heroes for a few shows this spring.

4/28 The Kate, Old Saybrook, CT
4/29 Towne Crier, Beacon, NY
5/1 The Folk Project, Morristown, NJ

⭐️ I’ll also be solo at Belmar Arts, Belmar NJ 5/3! ⭐️

Info and 🎟️ on my site.

I first heard Richard Shindell’s “Are You Happy Now” when I was a junior in college. Most people don’t know this, but I started out as a short story writer. I loved singing but it seemed so far out of reach as something to do professionally that I hadn’t even considered it. Singing was for famous people.

But I started learning guitar because that seemed like something people did in college. And then my suitemate played me Sparrow’s Point and Somewhere Near Paterson, and I understood for the first time that a short story could be told in a song, that you didn’t have to be a pop star to be a brilliant artist, and that one person with an acoustic could affect a whole room of people, bring them to tears, and then bring them to their feet in applause.

I think what I like best about these shows is just getting to watch a master at work. 🎓

Here we are at Cafe Carpe in Wisconsin last May. (Note the carp on the wall). 🐟

Address

Northampton, MA

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