Richard Carr was born Richard Rene Joseph Jeam-Marie Carpentier on February 19, 1963, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. During most of his childhood, Carr spent hardly any time with his parents so family and close friends raised him. This was very tough on Carr he never really had a place to call home. At the age of four Carr was singing in an Italian choir, at the convent that his Godmother placed him. Though his home environment kept constantly changing, he was able to find some sort of peace, by turning to the radio to hear his favorite music. The beautiful sound coming from it was the only thing that he could familiarize himself with and therefore became his best friend. At the age of seven, he received his first instrument a classical guitar, a gift from his godfather. Some lessons at the local Baptist church followed, where Carr attempted to learn to play. However, his real passion lay in listening to the Baptist choir that sung behind the preacher. His teacher realized this, and agreed to let him watch the choir instead of taking his lessons. Carr's fascination with gospel music originated from the nannies who cared for him in Gulf-Shores Alabama as a young child in the early sixties.




He recalls the first time he saw Elvis Presley on the Ed Sullivan show; the nannies in the house were all very excited. I remember how thrilled they were to see a white man on TV, singing black music. When Sundays rolled around the nannies would turn the radio .. church and tune-in to the gospel station and let it play all day long. This is where Carr got his first taste of gospel music. By the late sixties Carr stayed with family who were into the hippy scene. Through their record collection, he was exposed him to artist like; Tom Waits, Vanilla Fudge, Mothers of Invention, Miles Davis, Bird (Charlie-Parker), Harry James, Steve Miller, Janis Joplin, Loving Spoonful. This eclectic mix influenced Carrs musical taste at a very young age. He began liking artist like Ella Fitzgerald, Sara Vaughn, and Dinah Washington. These singers gave him his vocal reference. Carr began to identify with their tone, and he was able to sing along in the low keys that the artist used. Later he would turn toward artists like Tony Bennett, Mel Torme, Dean Martin and Anita ODay to round out his voice. However, as a child, Carr never envisioned himself, as a blues artist. He dreamed of becoming a jazz singer, a crooner like one of the members of the Rat Pack. He also did not want a guitar at first. He wanted a set of drums so that he could play swing like Buddy Rich and Louis Bellson. The drums were a little bit too loud, so his godfather opted for the guitar instead. Carr loved jazz so much he became a fountain of knowledge when it came to the genre. By this time, he also developed a taste for artists like Led Zeppelin, Beatles, Kiss, but much preferred songs with a swing feel in them from artists like Louis Jordan or BB King. When Carr reached 13, he picked up the guitar again, so he could meet girls. The way he saw it, girls liked boys that that played guitar, so he started to learn how to play for real.




His neighbor at the time was Mike Phoenix and his brother Paul had a band called The Phoenix Brothers Band. Consisting of two drummers and four guitarists Carr would play for the band, polishing his rhythm skills. When one of the guitar players did not show (and this happen quite often), Carr would fill in. The band played southern rock blues covers, from artist like Allman Brothers, Lynyrd Skynyrd, 38-Special. This is how he found himself learning the basic blues form. Carr found it easy to catch the rhythm and the beat. He got his sense of rhythm possibly from his mother, who was a great dancer. Being able to play rhythm on the guitar began his love for blues. When Carr was fifteen, he had practiced enough to play in front of his peers and impress them, which was one of his personal goals. If the people he looked up too thought he was good, he had gained their respect that made him proud. Now his main obstacle was performing in public. Since he was very shy at first, he had hard a time playing in front of people. So to get over this fear, he went to St-Catherine and Stanley street in down-town Montreal and stood on the corner-playing guitar. He was too scared to think of singing along. People took pity and threw loose change in the open case. Eventually he got over his fear and started performing in bands at local bars across town he was sixteen. Even though he was underage, in the 80s it was common to have young players in your band, as long as you acted responsible, they let you in the bar. When Carr was attending Westmont High School, he began a folk period with his collaboration with singer Jackie Stone. Their act was folksy, and they played songs by John Lennon and Crosby Stills Nash & Young. They would play mostly local coffee houses and outdoor events. He remembers his early stage-freight, his legs shaking violently on stage, his voice cracking and never making eye contact with the crowd, he was horrified. But as in all else, with practice Carr was able to overcome these difficulties.




By his early twenties, Carr pursued his keen interest in photography. He wanted to go around Montral and its surrounding areas, to find famous jazz clubs he use to hear about as a kid. His vision was to capture these artists in their elements at these clubs. Unfortunately, during the 60s there was a major cleanup of all the major clubs. This eliminated allot of the venues that musicians played, especially jazz artists. Since strip clubs and Blind Pigs were most likely to hire musicians to play live, they fueled much of the underground music scene in Montral during the early 30s to the end of the 50s. These after-hours or blind pigs opened around 4-am. The local live music scene slowed to a crippled for a very long time. Carr now found his pursuit to find live jazz musicians to be in vain because of the fact that there were few to find. In 1988, Carr got married and had a son soon after. He lived 8 years with his wife and son. After some consideration, he decided that he missed playing music too much and left with just some clothes, not actually owning a guitar at that time. This was a dark time for Carr but nonetheless he persisted with his dream to pursue his musical calling. Once he finally found a guitar to his liking, he began to practice eight to nine hours a day, to regain his old form. He wanted to have his old hands back, the ones that just picked up any guitar, and started jamming with it. With persistence and determination, Carr regained his professional credibility. However, while being alone and just coming off a divorce, he found himself unable to play anything but the Blues. Carr was in dire straights in Montreal, work was drying up and add to this frequent break ups of his band began to take its toll on Carr.




At this time 1998 Carr decided to moved to Boston. The US was always exciting for Carr, "There's a musical buzz that can't be found anywhere else". While living there, he attended a couple of jam nights where the local blues community began to notice Carr and his style of playing. "Willie would say to me Your killing me man!, meaning I would play at a low volume off the singer real old school. Most players were playing loud heavy rock riffs". Soon afterwards, Carr was approach by Weepy Willy, and Little Joe Cook, who were blues legends in Boston and the north easter US. Because of his good reputation and his credible style of playing the blues, they ask him to go on an 18-date tour with them as guitarist was unable to make the gigs. This was an excellent opportunity for him, and was to become the turning point in Carr's career. He knew then that by holding his own on stage with these legends and playing well, he was definitely moving in the right direction. Upon his return to Montreal in late 2000, he founded The-Gemtones and continued to earn the respect of everyone who saw him perform. Now as a solo artist, Richard Carr continues on the path to his true calling as singer, guitarist and gifted entertainer.
Clifton Glaves©2006