Artist Information
Biography
In 1966, Randy Burns was dropped off on the corner of Bleecker and MacDougal Street, with a bag over his shoulder and a guitar in his hand…ready for anything Randy had gotten his start a year earlier at The Exit Coffeehouse in New Haven, Connecticut but soon left to join the Urban Folk Revival in Greenwich Village. The first three months he slept in flop houses, on subways and park benches in Washington Square Park. Every week he played the open mic nights at the original Gerdes Folk City, The Gaslight Café and The Bitter End. Impressed by his talent, Clarence Hood, the owner of the legendary Gaslight hired Randy as the permanent opening act. At only eighteen he was opening for the biggest folk stars in the country, artists he’d only heard on records. During this period, he recorded three albums with a small independent label.
As the Folk Revival was fading, he formed the electric folk rock group, Randy Burns and the Skydog Band . Within months his first major label album was released on Mercury Records and two albums soon followed on Polydor Records.
Rolling Stone Magazine said, ‘Nobody, but nobody, sings anything like Randy Burns.’ The New York Times called Randy “Vocally Convincing.” Billboard Magazine wrote that “Randy’s voice is so intrinsically right that it wraps the listener in a pool of contentment.” When Randy played The Troubadour , the Los Angeles Times said, “Randy is the best country flavored rock singer since Graham Parsons, who was, and is, as good as anyone before him.”
Frustrated with the music industry, Randy returned to his folksinging roots and hit the road again as a folksinger. For years he was literally homeless – ‘It would have been a waste of money,” he says, “I was singing so many places that I’d leave a bag of clothes wherever I usually played so I could travel light.” A headliner at Kenny’s Castaways, in the late 70s, owner Pat Kenny arranged for Randy to tour Ireland. It was off to Dublin, where he played coast to coast two years in a row.
Randy has brand new CD out along with several other projects in the works. Recently Randy returned to New Haven where he had a sell-out performance that was met with rave reviews.
Randy Burns is a folksinger’s folksinger
Instrumentation
Randy Burns-guitar
Discography
Of Love and War
Evening of the Musician
Song for an Uncertain Lady
Randy Burns and the Skydog Band- Mercury
I'm a Lover Not a Fool-Polydor
Still on our Feet-Polydor
The Simple Things-Indie
Official Website
Links
Video
Press
Setlist
Set is usually 45 minutes to an, majority is my own songs but I do two or three covers, usually not well know covers.
