How COVID united a Lexington father, daughter’s different music styles for online shows

Jim Richardson has a running gag with his audiences, one where the veteran Lexington song stylist explains how he has been performing around the region in seven decades.

“People shouldn’t confuse that,” Richardson said. “It hasn’t been ‘for’ seven decades, it’s been ‘in’ seven decades because I’m only 71. I first started playing in Lexington at Two Keys in 1966.”

Still, that’s a lot of rooms, a lot of shows and a lot of performance situations. Of late, Richardson has taken to the same platform as most performing musicians – the internet. With his regular monthly gigs at Henry Clay’s Public House on hold due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, he has offered a series of live streaming shows from his home studio. The twist to this scenario is his performance partner. Joining Richardson has been his daughter Reilly, a New York-based vocalist and actress. The online alliance wasn’t planned. At all.

“Reilly came home for what she thought was a four day visit on March 13,” said Richardson (JR, to his fans). “On March 14, Broadway and touring shows stopped. Everything ended, and here she was. She came home with clothing for four days and she’s still here.

“Then I started getting these Facebook posts from people saying, ‘When are you going to play again?’ So I said to her, ‘Let’s do something together.’ Because our styles are so different, she’s always been reticent to that. She’d say, ‘Dad, that’s just not what I do.’ So I said, ‘Let’s try.’ So we did the first one on April 11. The first show had 874 views. The second show, two weeks later on April 25, had 1,500 views. If I’m at Henry Clay and I get 50 people, it’s packed. This just blew me away.”

The hesitancy referenced dealt with musical style. Richardson’s shows through the decades have been a mix of rock, pop and folk fare with an underlying love of country music.

“Back in the ‘60s, I was performing in these teen clubs playing rock ‘n’ roll,” Richardson said. “But on the break, I’m listening to the Grand Ole Opry out in the parking lot in my car.”

Daughter Reilly’s profession centers around a repertoire that utilizes a vastly different vocal approach.

“We’ll be rehearsing something and she’ll go, ‘Okay Dad, let me tell you how you’re supposed to breathe on that song.’ She comes from a background where she’s got all the stuff and I’m just up there drinking bourbon and singing at the top of my lungs.

“But our connection has really, really grown. Before, I got the feeling that anytime I got her to do something that was really obligatory, she was like, ‘Okay, Dad wants me to sing this song, so I’ll do it.’ Now, she’s coming up with suggestions. It’s hard to explain how this works with someone you love so much, someone you’re so close to, someone who is now stuck here in Lexington.”

While music sits at the center of daughter Reilly’s professional life, it has become somewhat of a sideline affair these days for father Jim. Though he made a seven year run of playing songs for a living some time ago, Richardson worked as a English teacher before settling in as a financial advisor for Morgan Stanley.

“Music brings me balance. That’s the most important thing. I think that’s why it’s still a part of my life. Music runs through our family. Outside of being with my family, the happiest I am is with a guitar in my hand.”

Richardson’s audience seem pretty thrilled by his music, as well.

“We’ve done seven shows so far and are averaging 1,000 views at each one,” Richardson said. “Now people are having watch parties. One group in Columbus has a patio party where all the patios in a cul de sac face one another, so they view the shows together. Then, with a group in Northern Kentucky, a guy bought one of these massive 20 x 20 foot blow-up screens and adds in a Zoom with 10 other couples so they communicate back and forth with each other while they’re watching us. It’s been overwhelming.

“For the last two shows, we brought a couple of close friends who have been doing all the right distancing things into the studio,” Richardson said. “So now we have a ‘live audience,’ and while it seems crazy, it has made a difference. I’ve got to have a guy in front row sitting in front me so I can make fun of him and he can make fun of me. That was the reason I made any money at all playing music. People wanted to be part of the group. They wanted to be part of the club.”

The club, in this case, has become a sizable one that reaches beyond geographical boundaries and time zones.

“At one point, we had people from 30 different states and three different countries watching. Two shows ago, we had a woman on there who had been watching from Egypt. She said, ‘Well, it’s two in the morning here…’

“Obviously, someone didn’t have anything better to do.”

Jim and Reilly Richardson

When: 8 p.m. Sept. 12

Where: Facebook live, facebook.com/events/3377356405643746