An artist who makes Alexandria, Virginia, his home base will perform soon in Springfield.
Mike (Rook) Richards is on the road in the Virginia, Maryland, and D.C. region while he works on his next record. He is on the Straight Shooter Music label, having signed with the Nashville company in 2019. Artists that have recorded on this label include The Oak Ridge Boys, Montgomery Gentry, Gary Allan, Conway Twitty, George Strait, and Kenny Chesney.
However, Richards’ recording career was upended by the pandemic. The plan was for him to drop an EP on a country label, get a radio push to see how well the recording did, then go on tour, but everything went on hold. While he waited for the situation to resolve, Richards began recording his work in a studio in Virginia and started to release songs one at a time, and his career began.
He notes that he has listened to every genre of music imaginable, from Led Zeppelin to the Beatles, Kenny Loggins to Stevie Wonder. The influences have come together into a style that is a sort of pop country with a dash of Americana thrown in.
Rook Richards will be at the Vim & Victor at The St. James, a restaurant in the hotel. He will appear on May 15. When they plan concerts like this, organizers frequently work with poster printing to create suitable advertising.
