Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Song Of The Week: Mimi & Richard Farina - Reno, Nevada


Listen - Mimi and Richard Farina perform Reno, Nevada


I picked this single up years ago at a crappy Sacramento shopping mall based used record store of no particular name. I probably got it for $.50 or less. From day one I have loved every aspect of it. The incessant reverb-free guitar work that sounds like a Telecaster (to me), Mimi's humming, the barrel house piano and Richard's nasally vocals. I've never heard anything else by this husband/wife duo that I have liked. But damn, I do like Reno, Nevada. I believe it was recorded in 1965 and was published by the folk dominant label, Vanguard.

Enjoy.

6 comments:

  1. Hi Friend! Thanks for the add.
    I'll put "on the flip side"
    in my "beautiful places".
    Hold on!

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  2. i've loved them for decades, but this photo is new to me, now my 'desktop'
    ...the tragickest damn story you'll find, Richard's demise...
    wmbr.org/blog/2011/06/12/mimi-and-richard-farina-live-on-wmbr-1965
    http://www.richardandmimi.com/index.html

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  3. GE - thanks for hipping me to Richard's story. I was unaware of the details. They were all so young.

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  4. Mimi to this day is the most beautiful person I've ever met. Her work with www.breadandroses.org epitomized what music is all about.

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  5. It is very sophisticated songwriting for the time and they were a very good looking couple. The what ifs are enormous.

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    Replies
    1. It's got an unusual jazz flavor to it. Jazzy, bluesy folk!

      ... At an S-turn the driver lost control. The motorcycle tipped over on the right side of the road, came back to the other side, and tore through a barbed wire fence into a field where a small vineyard now exists. The driver survived, but Fariña was killed instantly. According to Pynchon's preface to Been Down..., the police said the motorcycle must have been traveling at 90 miles per hour

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