Richmond Fontaine leader Willy Vlautin has spent the better part of his life scouring the blue highways of the American West for characters and themes that eventually make their way into his songs.
With his short narratives, Vlautin dissects the underbelly of the rural West like few other writers in music today. In much the same way Merle Haggard's music revealed the lives of fellow Okie refugees living in Bakersfield, Calif., Vlautin's songs hold the smell of small-town bars, the vision of wide-open vistas common to any Western traveler and the sounds erupting from his radio since childhood: country, folk, rock and roll.
While Richmond Fontaine has certainly developed a fan base in the states through touring and albums such as "Winnemucca" and "Post to Wire," Vlautin's work has touched a nerve across the Atlantic. Uncut, one of England's leading music magazines, named "Post to Wire" its fourth-best album of 2004, and just gave a five-star review to "The Fitzgerald," the band's latest, scheduled for stateside release in August. That success in Europe has led to a drastic change in lifestyle for Vlautin and his bandmates, bassist Dave Harding, guitarist Dan Eccles and drummer Sean Oldham.
"We've been in Europe about four or five months of the last 18," Vlautin said in a call from a pay phone in the Atlanta airport, where the band paused Tuesday night midtrip from Barcelona, Spain, to Portland, Ore., where Vlautin lives. Aside from the U.K. and Ireland, the band's base is growing in Holland, Germany and Spain. "I didn't even have a passport until two years ago."
Vlautin doesn't really have an explanation for why Europeans are so tuned in to Richmond Fontaine's sound, but he's loving the chance to travel and play.
The band started in 1994 when Vlautin and Harding decided to form a group based on their mutual love of acts like HŸsker DŸ, Willie Nelson, X, The Replacements and The Blasters. Through years of constant playing, first in their hometown of Reno, then in the West, then nationwide, Richmond Fontaine developed into one tight unit in concert by the time they started dazzling European crowds.
When it came time to write new songs, Vlautin holed up for two weeks in a favorite old Reno casino, The Fitzgerald, and came up with the songs that make up the album of the same name.
"It's more of an acoustic record, a story record," he said. "It's pretty stark. After 'Post to Wire,' I just started writing a lot of really hard-core folk songs."
The way he wrote "The Fitzgerald," submerging himself among the people and hard-bitten environment of a decaying casino, is nothing new to Vlautin.
He did the same with "Winnemucca," staying at that town's Winner's Casino for inspiration. He still returns to Winnemucca at least once a year, he said, playing shows at a local Basque restaurant and writing.
"If I'm good and I don't drink too much, I can usually stay about four or five days by myself without going crazy, and I can get some writing done," Vlautin said. "I just love exploring those kinds of towns. Places like Winnemucca, everyone has a story and people are really open."
Vlautin's love of rambling stretches back to his childhood, when his family drove "all over northern Nevada" and he hunted with his dad in the desert outback. His love of the West's open spaces has prompted him and his girlfriend to look for property to buy in Nevada.
Somewhere small, naturally. %% A long way from Winnemucca
* Richmond Fontaine, with Chris McFarland, Edgar's Mule and Arroyo opening, plays Salt Lake City's Ego's, 668 S. State St., on Saturday at 9 p.m. Tickets are $7 at all Smith's Tix outlets and the door.
* The band also plays Saturday afternoon at Little Dell Reservoir as part of the Utah Rivers Council Paddle Festival; $10. Take the East Canyon Exit (# 134) from Interstate 80 and head northeast to the reservoir.%%Richmond Fontaine, with Chris McFarland, Edgar's Mule and Arroyo opening, plays Salt Lake City's Ego's, 668 S. State, Saturday at 9 p.m. Tickets are $7 at all Smith's Tix outlets and the door. The band also plays Saturday afternoon at Little Dell Reservoir as part of the Utah Rivers Council Paddle Festival; $10. %%The band at a glance %% Who: Richmond Fontaine
What: Portland, Ore.-based four-piece mixing country, rock and folk
What's with the name? Richmond Fontaine, according to the band's bio, was a "down and out American expatriate that bass player Dave Harding met while hitchhiking in Mexico."
Check out Richmond Fontaine if you like: The Replacements, Uncle Tupelo, Wilco, X%%
