Biography
Darren Richard and Charles Kim, psychology majors at Vanderbilt University, launched their musical partnership in 1990. They first supported a female jazz vocalist at clubs in the Nashville area, then relocated to Chicago and launched Pinetop Seven in 1994. One year later the pair captured their self-titled debut inside their landlord’s attic. Bassist Ryan Hembrey entered the lineup shortly afterward; he had scattered flyers across the city offering bass instruction, and Kim was the only person who responded. The group toured in support of the album and soon obtained licensing arrangements with Truckstop/Atavistic and with Glitterhouse, an independent European label. In 1997 the musicians returned to the attic studio to record the EP No Breath In the Bellows, which was succeeded a year later by the full-length album Rigging the Toplights.
Pinetop Seven’s spare fusion of country, jazz, rock, and folk elements resists easy classification. The trio regularly augments its sound with additional players and draws on instruments that include upright bass, accordion, banjo, mandolin, and slide guitars.
Pinetop Seven’s spare fusion of country, jazz, rock, and folk elements resists easy classification. The trio regularly augments its sound with additional players and draws on instruments that include upright bass, accordion, banjo, mandolin, and slide guitars.