THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, April 13, 1996 TAG: 9604120067
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY FRANK ROBERTS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Short : 48 lines
HERE'S A behind-the-scenes look at how it's done.
A group is looking for a contract from a major recording company.
They've been on the road two years, bouncing from one dance hall to the next, doing covers of songs made famous by others.
They get to Nashville, where you have to cry for attention.
``We didn't have a record deal with Columbia,'' said Heath Wright, lead singer/lead guitarist for Ricochet. ``They give you a small recording budget. You have to find three or four songs and lay 'em on tape.''
One of his group's songs was ``What Do I Know?'' It's the tale of a man who left the woman he loved for greener pastures.
It put Ricochet in money-green pastures. Columbia signed them, they cut an album and they hit the road, opening for Doug Stone, Merle Haggard and Charlie Daniels.
Sunday they will be at Rogue's in Virginia Beach, offering their Top 5 hit and, of course, additional songs.
``When we tell the audience we're getting ready to do `What Do I Know?' it's cool seeing them getting on their feet and going crazy,'' Wright said during a phone interview from Amarillo, Texas. ``It's a dream come true.''
Of course, performers don't last long if they fail to produce hits or attract good-sized audiences, which is not too easy for newcomers these days when competition in country music is fierce.
However, Wright said: ``The more people we have in the country music family the better - it means larger audiences. Perfect Stranger or Lonestar might bring an audience to country that we couldn't.''
And, Wright hopes, vice versa.
``We're good friends of most of those guys. We often play basketball with some of them,'' he said. ``Lonestar whips our butts. And we hang out with Perfect Stranger. Once, I loaned them my amplifier.
``Country music,'' said Wright, an Oklahoman with two college degrees, ``is not like other kinds of music. It's one big family.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo by MATT BARNES /Columbia
Richochet struck it rich with ``What Do I Know?'' It's the tale of a
man who left the woman he loved for greener pastures.
by CNB