Fritz Richmond (1939-2005) was an American musician and recording engineer. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Fritz Richmond was considered the foremost washtub bassist in the world, and was also the most successful professional jug player. WashtubBassjpg|180px|thumb|A four-string washtub bass with a wooden bridge and fingerboard]]The washtub bass, or "gutbucket" is a stringed instrument used in American The jug as a musical instrument reached its height of popularity in the 1920s when Jug bands such as Cannon's Jug Stompers were popular

Richmond, born in Newton, Massachusetts on July 10, 1939,^[1][2] was a founding member of The Hoppers, a school-chum jug band that played the coffeehouse circuit in the Boston area. The City of Newton in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, is an important residential Suburb of Boston, which abuts it on the east The Commonwealth of Massachusetts ( is a state located in the New England region of the northeastern United States. Events 48 BC - Battle of Dyrrhachium, Julius Caesar barely avoids a catastrophic defeat to Pompey in Macedonia. Year 1939 ( MCMXXXIX) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. A jug band is a band employing a jug player and a mix of traditional and home-made instruments Jug music featured homemade or folk-style instruments such as the washboard (used for percussion), a large earthenware jug used as a wind instrument, and a single-string upright bass fashioned from a broomstick or similar handle, using a steel washtub as a resonator, with the player moving the handle in order to vary the tension on the string and thus vary the pitch of the note created by plucking. A washboard is a tool designed for hand washing clothing With mechanized cleaning of clothing becoming more common by the end of the 20th century the washboard has become better known This type of music, in England, became known as skiffle music and was played by groups who could not afford electric instruments, such as the Quarrymen, a Liverpool skiffle group that evolved into The Beatles. Skiffle is a type of Folk music with Jazz, Blues and Country influences usually using homemade or improvised instruments such as the Washboard The Quarrymen (circa late 1956—October 1959/1997—present are an English Skiffle band that was formed in Liverpool in the latter part of 1956 by John Liverpool ( is a City and Metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary The Beatles were a pop and rock band from Liverpool, England formed in 1960

After a stint in the Army and then a gig with the Charles River Valley Boys,^[3] Richmond was a founding member and a longtime jug and washboard player in the extremely influential Jim Kweskin Jug Band in the 1960s. Jim Kweskin (born July 18, 1940, Stamford Connecticut) is the founder of the Jim Kweskin Jug Band, with Fritz Richmond, Mel ^[4]

Following the breakup of the Kweskin band, Richmond moved to the West coast and became an in-demand accompanist as American rock began to embrace folk and country roots. The " West Coast " " Western Seaboard " or " Pacific Seaboard " are terms for the westernmost coastal states of the Western United States During his life, Richmond was routinely given accolades such as “[t]he world's best living jug player”,^[5] “[t]he undisputed king and reigning world champion of the jug and washtub bass”,^[6] and “the world’s greatest living jug and washtub bass player”. ^[7] Richmond’s washtub and jug stylings provided old-time music flavor on recordings for a large network of artists that included Jackson Browne, Loudon Wainwright III, Maria Muldaur, Geoff Muldaur, Tom Rush, Ry Cooder, and The Grateful Dead. Old-time music is a form of North American Folk music, with roots in the Folk musics of many countries including England, Scotland, Clyde Jackson Browne (born October 9, 1948) is a German -born American rock Singer-songwriter and Musician. Loudon Snowden Wainwright III (born September 5, 1946) is an American Songwriter, Folk singer, Humorist, and Maria Muldaur (born Maria Grazia Rosa Domenica D'Amato, 12 September 1943, in Greenwich Village, New York) is a roots- folk Geoff Muldaur (born August 12 1943 Pelham, New York) is a founding member of the Jim Kweskin Jug Band of Cambridge, Massachusetts Tom Rush (born on February 8, 1941, in Portsmouth New Hampshire) is a noted folk and blues singer songwriter and recording Ryland "Ry" Peter Cooder (born 15 March 1947, in Los Angeles, California) is an American Guitarist, Singer, and The Grateful Dead was an American rock band formed in 1965 in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Richmond also worked as a recording engineer for many artists, and his credits can be found, notably, on albums by Warren Zevon, Bonnie Raitt, and Jackson Browne. Warren William Zevon (January 24 1947 &ndash September 7 2003 was a Grammy Award -winning American rock Singer-songwriter and Musician Bonnie Lynn Raitt (born November 8, 1949) is an American Blues Singer-songwriter who was born in Burbank, California

Richmond also contributed a key counterculture fashion accessory. Counterculture (also " counter-culture " is a sociological term used to describe the values and norms of behavior of a Cultural group, or Roger McGuinn and John Sebastian credit Richmond with the introduction of "granny glasses" in the early 1960s. James Roger McGuinn (known professionally as Roger McGuinn, previously as Jim McGuinn, and born James Joseph McGuinn III on July 13, John Sebastian (born John Benson Sebastian on 17 March 1944, in Greenwich Village, New York City) is an American Songwriter ^[8] A well-known photo by John Byrne Cooke shows Richmond wearing his homemade pair in 1963, long before John Lennon popularized the "British welfare glasses". John Winston Ono Lennon, MBE (born ^[3] Spectacles like Richmond’s -- consisting initially of colored non-prescription glass set into old wire-frames, thus shielding the often-stoned performer's eyes from public view -- then became common on the San Francisco rock scene where the Jim Kweskin Jug Band was paired in concert with bands such as The Doors and Big Brother and the Holding Company. The City and County of San Francisco is the fourth most populous city This article is about the band For their self-titled debut album see The Doors (album; for the Oliver Stone film see The Doors (film; for Doors in computing Big Brother and the Holding Company is an American rock band that formed in San Francisco in 1965 as part of the psychedelic music scene Janis Joplin and Jerry Garcia, who also socialized with Richmond, were among those who adopted the colored-lens look. Janis Lyn Joplin ( January 19, 1943  – October 4, 1970) was an American singer songwriter and music arranger from Jerome John "Jerry" Garcia (August 1 1942 &ndash August 9 1995 was a Musician, Songwriter, Artist, and Lead guitarist and

Richmond also came up with the name for the band The Lovin’ Spoonful. The Lovin' Spoonful is an American Pop rock band of the 1960s named to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000 ^[9][10]

Richmond continued to perform through 2004. For approximately the last decade of his life he was a core member of John Sebastian’s J-Band,^[11] and a sometime member of The Fountain of Youth.

Music writer Jim Mitchell described Richmond as a “notorious luminary in the field of old-time American music. Nobody with even the slightest knowledge of jug band music and traditional string-band repertoire can overlook his contributions…. which are indeed of historical significance. ” One of Richmond’s washtub basses is in the permanent collection of the Smithsonian Institution. The Smithsonian Institution (smɪθsoʊnɪən is an educational and research institute and associated Museum complex administered and funded by the Government of ^[12]

Richmond died in Portland, Oregon of lung cancer on November 20, 2005. Portland is a city located in the Northwestern United States, near the Confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers Lung cancer is a Disease of uncontrolled Cell growth in tissues of the Lung. Year 2005 ( MMV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar of the Gregorian calendar.

References

External links

• Illustrated Jim Kweskin & The Jug Band discography
• John Sebastian's website, which featured columns by Fritz Richmond
• Jim Mitchell's notes

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