Adam Rich
Adam Rich was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1974. He took piano lessons from an early age and played the clarinet in high school. In 5th grade, he met new student named Oliver who played the drums. Adam also got interested, and both of them started playing guitar as well. Adam's parents got him a drum set for his 15th birthday and a guitar for his 16th birthday. By 8th grade, the two were jamming in the basement regularly. This continued until high school graduation.
Adam attended Bowling Green State University, graduating in 1997 with a degree in recording technology. He formed his own record label, Love Muffin, to release his first cassette in 1993 which he recorded over the summer after his freshman year at college. He began playing bass in 1992 as well. He would release two more cassettes in 1994 and 1997. Adam wrote most of the music, played most of the instruments, recorded, mixed and mastered the projects himself while having many guest vocalists because he could not sing to save his life. He also played bass for State Of Green, a pop/punk band, from 1994 to 1997. The band released one CD and played the infamous CBGB's in New York among other venues.
Upon graduation, Adam moved back to Cleveland in mid 1998 and played bass in a few bands over the next decade including Tadpol (1998 -2001) and Girth (2002-2006). Each of those bands released one CD with Adam. He also released two solo CD's, Foundation (2002) and You Can't Escape Life (2006). In late 2006, Adam decided to return to the guitar and form his own band to play songs from his past and current solo releases. With longtime friend and collaborator Jared Levengood handling vocals/bass, and Ernie Richmann on drums, the Adam Rich Band made its debut in March 2007 at the first Love Muffin Records Showcase. That was the only performance by the band, as Jared left to pursue other musical interests.
That summer, Oliver moved back to Cleveland. He had released a solo CD earlier in the year and was looking for a rhythm section. Adam switched back to bass, brought along his drummer Ernie, and The New Madrids were born. 15 years after high school, childhood friends making music together once again.
Adam cites Cliff Burton, Flea, Juan Nelson, D.D.Verni, Jerry Only, John Maurer, James Lomenzo and Robby Takac as his bass influences.
He likes mexican food, Cleveland sports teams, and the 80's TV show The Greatest American Hero.
Ernie Richmann
Ernie Richmann was born on February 17th, 1977 in Painesville, Ohio just east of Cleveland. As an only child, it was necessary for Ernie to find ways to entertain himself when at home. After countless art projects, building projects, etc., Ernie’s parents discovered he had a fascination with the arts. He was enrolled in various art activities while growing up, including drawing classes, model trains, and Suzuki-style piano. Though it was obvious that piano was not his love, he did seem to have a gift for “feeling” music. At the age of twelve, Ernie was given the option to choose another instrument. It only took a short while to pick one…the drums. It was an easy choice, as he always enjoyed hand clapping and playing various small percussion instruments in elementary school music class. After a summer of rudimental snare training by his teacher, Brian Dorr, he played in the middle school band, and then the stage band and orchestra in high school, led by Mr. Acerra for the later, more meaningful half of his stay at Notre Dame-Cathedral Latin. Outside of school, Ernie continued his drum studies with Kip Volans, a private drum instructor, and was exposed to bands like The Average White Band, Tower of Power, and James Brown. It was through Kip that Ernie began to really broaden his musical horizons.
In college Ernie studied graphic design, but in his free time found a group of inspired musicians to collaborate with in what would soon be know as the band Pacemaker Jane. What made this band special was theie unusually wide range of influences. Pacemaker Jane played regularly in and around Bowling Green, Toledo, and other Northwest Ohio cities. In 1997 they released an EP, coincidently named “Extended Play.” In 1999 the band would start its first full-length album, but it wouldn’t be until March of 2007 that the project would be completed. The 8-year process allowed the band's songwriting and sound to mature beyond typical college rock. Pacemaker Jane still plays together, though rarely, as the band members are spread throughout the state of Ohio.
In January of 2000, Ernie moved to New York as a volunteer to renovate a decrepit annex building to St. Peter’s Church in the South Bronx. He worked and lived in this building for nearly 3 years. The stay on the block of East 140th street would prove to be a life changing experience that he would never forget. Aside from living and working on 140th Street, Ernie found a job at the Pop Shop in Manhattan, a small retail store opened by the late Pop artist, Keith Haring. His experience here proved to be beneficial artistically, as he embraced and began to understand the world of graffiti art and the hip-hop music from which it drew inspiration. Though Ernie always liked hip-hop, he began to understand the difference between simply listening to the music, and actually feeling and understanding it. Ernie took this discovery and apply it to other forms of music.
In May of 2002, Ernie moved to Cincinnati, where he intended to continue playing drums with Pacemaker Jane. Although this did not pan out, Ernie was able to use his degree in Graphic Design to stay active in the music field at Willis Music Company where he designed material for their retail, publishing, and recording studio.
In February 2005, Ernie moved back to Cleveland. He decided to continue with Graphic Design as a freelance artist for his company, e4design, LLC, but also wanted to find a new musical project. t wasn’t until October of 2007 that Ernie would pair up with Adam Rich, a college friend, who would introduce Ernie to Oliver Buck, a singer/songwriter/guitarist that had also returned home to Cleveland the same year. Ernie was impressed with Oliver’s performance, but more importantly, his ability to feel his music.
Ernie has an unusually wide range of musical influences, from Motown, to James Brown, Parliament Funkadelic, the Meters, Jimi Hendrix, Average White Band, Hall and Oates, the Police, Gang Starr and DJ Premier, KRS One, Public Enemy, Del, Tribe Called Quest, among most other late 1980’s and early to mid 1990’s east-coast hip-hop, The Roots, Tower of Power, Talking Heads, early Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Weezer, Cake, and various other creative bands and styles; some he has yet to discover.
Joe Landes
Joe Landes was born wailing and flailing on December 8th, 1984 in Huntington, West Virginia. He grew up an only-child in the tiny community of Salt Rock and kept himself busy with the arts – drawing, writing, and just simply creating. Academically, Joe was a straight-A student, but he never felt truly happy during his scholarly pursuits. In fact, when he graduated high school, he had earned a free ride to college, but he turned it down in order to pursue a life as a musician.
Joe’s interest in music began around age five when he first heard and fell in love with Little Richard’s “Long Tall Sally.” He was exposed to a variety of music from an early age – his grandfather (whom he idolized) was a guitarist/singer for a traditional gospel quartet, his uncle a country musician, his father a lover of Motown and classic rock, and his mother an appreciator of a wide range of music that she shared with him. His favorite bands/artists as an early adolescent were the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, Chuck Berry, Creedence Clearwater Revival, and other classic rock(‘n’roll) bands.
It was at age 14 that Joe received the call to become a musician. After listening to his favorite bands via headphones the entire duration of an eight-hour bus trip, something clicked inside him and he immediately knew that he had to learn to play. His grandfather allowed him to borrow one of his acoustic guitars, and, as they say, the rest is history. He rushed out, bought a basic chord book, and taught himself how to play; he gave his first “performance” a month later in front of a classroom as part of a project.
Joe’s first real experience with performing came at age 15 when he served as lead guitarist in his grandfather’s gospel quartet. He also jammed regularly with a few high school classmates, playing mostly classic rock numbers. At the same time, Joe was treading into new musical territory. He was very interested in discovering the roots of the music he enjoyed, and as a result fell deeply in love with and became heavily influenced by the blues and other traditional rural musical styles.
Following high school in 2003, Joe formed a three-piece blues-rock band named Jacks Wilde and played a number of shows in the WV, OH, KY tri-state area. The group also landed a few festival shows in Clarksville, Tennessee. After about a year together, the group disbanded and in December ‘04 Joe offered his lead guitar services to a Huntington-area classic rock cover band named Sgt. Carter. The group played regular weekend shows until they disbanded in August ‘05.
In September 2005, Joe moved to Cleveland, OH to pursue both a career as a solo musician and to be with the girl he would eventually marry. During his time in Cleveland, he has played several coffee houses, bars, public events, and was even invited to play the Mahoning River Blues Festival in Youngstown. He also recorded his live, all-original 10-song demo album “Blues from 402” and continues to sell it at his solo shows.
Joe first met and was blown away by Oliver Buck at a gig in September 2007. The two also spent much of the evening discussing how people often inappropriately use the term “dobro” to describe any steel-bodied guitar. It was the start of a beautiful relationship. The two would go on to play a number of shows together until Oliver finally popped the question – the question of joining the group as lead guitarist, that is.
Joe listens to a wide variety of music (from blues to early country to Indian sitars to Scottish bagpipes to classical and so on), but his main guitar influences include Charley Patton, Son House, Robert Johnson, Blind Willie Johnson, Bukka White, the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, Chuck Berry, B.B. King, Albert Collins, Buddy Guy, Hubert Sumlin, Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, and many more.
