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 See, I know I can’t write about no Richard Cousins with no objectivity. And I don’t intend too. This is my longest and best friend. This is a young man I admire and love like he was my own Son.
See without Richard Cousins I’d still be working up there in Oregon in a pine smell filled, high noise level, saw mill. I’d still be believing if I could become the best green chain puller in all of Josephine County I could walk down town and my neighbors would admire my hard work.
Richard told me back in about 1976 this: "We’re all gonna be stars...we got Robert Cray. We don’t need nothing else."
It was the first time I’d heard or imagined that. Back then me and Bruce Bromberg were just making records because we loved to. Never occured to us we’d ever make any money, or make a living producing...HUH??...blues albums!!
"We’re all gonna be stars..."
I didn’t really know what that meant but it set off a sound in my head like a piece of hot wire being pulled across a hasp.
Like...schreeechrecch!!!..well...maybe.
Let me tell you a Richard Cousins story: See back then,"Bad Influence" had just come out but no body really gave a shit. Cray and the boys were riding all over the country opening for John Lee Hooker and were so broke they had to take turns breathing.
One early morning they got about two hundred miles into Iowa when the blinking light on the gas gauge turned a ferocious red. The engine sputtered a bit, but they were able to make it to a filling station on the out skirts of a small town nestled in acre upon hundreds of acres of corn. But there were no lights on in the building and they could see a shade the color of old parchment pulled down over the window of the front door.
"It’s closed," Olsen mutters. Half asleep. Grouchy. "Figures."
"Don’t matter." Cray says. "We’re broke anyway."
"Huh?"
Mike Vannice was the keyboard and sax player and arranger in the band then. He told me, "We were stuck out there in the middle of no where waiting to call the west coast to get some money wired to us. Me and Rand and Olsen, we were disgusted and hungry and hung over and our heads were hung down and we were all thinking all we wanted was some bacon and eggs and a bed we’d seen more than once.
Ok. So Richard opens the side door of the van and says, "Look at this boys...we’re out here in America. Look at that sunrise. Breathe in that fresh air. Smell that plowed up corn field. Lucky. Ain’t we? And on top of that... you...all of us... get to play tonight with Robert Cray...Huh?? How lucky could you get...tonight...We get to play with Robert Cray!!!!.It don’t get any better than this."
Mike continued: "And you know, all at once, watching this guy, this Richard Cousins, standing up with every odd against him, just delighted to be him, and where he was, and knowing for certain about a future none of the rest of us could even imagine, it never failed to invigorate me and make me think, "This guys a whole other breed."
And truer words were never spoken. And I ain’t talking about no couple years on the road or one Thanksgiving spent in a diner in Duluth. I’m talking twelve years of diners. I’m talking twelve years cramped, four or five guys deep, in a van, driving from Pocatello to Missoula to play one night at Elmer’s Bar and Bait Shop. Twelve years of driving back roads and beating the bushes basically for just enough money to get to the next job.
By the time Strong Persuader came out they’d beat so many bushes the band was so far in the red nobody could read the spread sheets with out high powered raybons to deflect the glare.
The first time Richard Cousins got a check he didn’t know how to cash it.
Cray is so hugely talented he’d a made it big one way or the other. But I think he’d agree it wouldn’t have happened the way it did with out Rich.
See, without Richards singular vision and constant positive attitude, and he and Cray’s oak hard determination, a lot of us would be working over time plucking chickens just to pay the rent. I won’t mention no names but we all know who we are.
And in the mean time he’s become the best R&B and blues bass player in the world. Softest touch, best choice of notes, best feel, and a groove so fat a half dozen sparrows could land on it.
As I said, I’m highly biased. but I also know the truth when I hear it.
Richard Cousins.
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Richard Cousins Discography
Bad Influence (1983) - Robert Cray
By: Robert Cray
Credited Role:Bass
Song List: Phone Booth, Bad Influence, The Grinder
Who's Been Talkin' (1980) - Robert Cray
By: Robert Cray
Credited Role:Bass
Song List: Too Many Cooks, The Score, When The Welfare Turns Its Back ...
Best of Friends (1998) - John Lee Hooker
By: John Lee Hooker
Credited Role:Bass
Song List: Boogie Chillen, This Is Hip, The Healer
Boom Boom (1992) - John Lee Hooker
By: John Lee Hooker
Credited Role:Bass
Song List: Boom Boom, Hobo Blues, I Want To Hug You
Too Long in Exile (1993) - Van Morrison
By: Van Morrison
Credited Role:Bass
Song List: Too Long In Exile, Big Time Operators, Lonley Avenue
Mr. Lucky (1991) - John Lee Hooker
By: John Lee Hooker
Credited Role:Bass
Song List: I Want To Hug You, Mr. Lucky, Backstabbers
Don't Be Afraid of the Dark (1988) - Robert Cray Band
By: Robert Cray Band
Credited Role:Bass
Song List: Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark, Don't You Even Care?, Your Sec...
Chill Out [Shout! Factory] (2007) - John Lee Hooker
By: John Lee Hooker
Credited Role:Bass
Song List: Chill Out (Things Gonna Change), Deep Blue Sea, Kiddio
One Believer (1991) - John Campbell
By: John Campbell
Credited Role:Bass
Song List: Devil In My Closet, Angel Of Sorrow, Wild Streak
Score: Charly Blues Masterworks, Vol. 16 (1993) - Robert Cray
By: Robert Cray
Credited Role:Bass
Song List: Too Many Cooks, Score, Welfare (Turns Its Back on You)
24 Nights (1991) - Eric Clapton
By: Eric Clapton
Credited Role:Guitar (Bass)
Song List: Badge, Running On Faith, White Room
Healer (1989) - John Lee Hooker
By: John Lee Hooker
Credited Role:Bass
Song List: The Healer, I'm In The Mood, Baby Lee
Gold (2006) - B.B. King
By: B.B. King
Credited Role:Bass
Song List: How Blue Can You Get?, Sneakin' Around, Help the Poor
Watching from the Safe Side (2006) - Philipp Fankhauser
By: Philipp Fankhauser
Credited Role:Arranger, Bass
Song List: It's Over Now Baby, Watching from the Safe Side, Too Little...
Strong Persuader (Gold) (1993) - Robert Cray
By: Robert Cray
Credited Role:Bass
Song List: Smoking Gun, I Guess I Showed Her, Right Next Door (Because...
Hooker [Shout] (2006) - John Lee Hooker
By: John Lee Hooker
Credited Role:Bass
Song List: Boogie Chillen, Sally Mae, Black Man Blues
Too Many Cooks (1990) - Robert Cray
By: Robert Cray
Credited Role:Bass
Song List: Too Many Cooks, The Score, When The Welfare Turns Its Back ...
20th Century Masters - The Millennium Collection: The Best of Robert Cray (2002) - Robert
Cray
By: Robert Cray
Credited Role:Bass
Song List: Smoking Gun, Right Next Door (Because Of Me), Bouncin' Back
Greatest Hits [MCA] (1998) - B.B. King
By: B.B. King
Credited Role:Bass
Song List: Everyday I Have The Blues, Sweet Little Angel (Live), How B...
False Accusations (1985) - Robert Cray
By: Robert Cray
Credited Role:Bass
Song List: Porch Light, Change Of Heart, Change Of Mind, She's Gone
Blues Summit (1993) - B.B. King
By: B.B. King
Credited Role:Bass
Song List: Playin' With My Friends, Since I Met You, Baby, I Pity The ...
Best of Van Morrison, Vol. 3 (2007) - Van Morrison
By: Van Morrison
Credited Role:Bass
Song List: Cry For Home, Too Long In Exile, Gloria
Midnight Stroll (1990) - Robert Cray
By: Robert Cray
Credited Role:Guitar (Bass)
Song List: The Forecast (Calls For Pain), These Things, My Problem
Healer (Gold) (1992) - John Lee Hooker
By: John Lee Hooker
Credited Role:Bass
Song List: The Healer, I'm In The Mood, Baby Lee
Heavy Picks: The Robert Cray Collection (1999) - Robert Cray
By: Robert Cray
Credited Role:Bass
Song List: Phone Booth, Forecast (Calls For Pain), Smoking Gun
Strong Persuader (1986) - Robert Cray
By: Robert Cray
Credited Role:Bass
Song List: Smoking Gun, I Guess I Showed Her, Right Next Door (Because...
More Than You Can Chew (1995) - Curtis Salgado
By: Curtis Salgado
Credited Role:Bass
Song List: To Hell With It (Part 1), Little Charmer, I Don't Care
Don't Look Back (1997) - John Lee Hooker
By: John Lee Hooker
Credited Role:Bass
Song List: Dimples, The Healing Game, Ain't No Big Thing
American Music: Hightone Records Story / Various (2006) - Various Artists
By: Various Artists
Credited Role:Bass
Song List: Phone Booth, Stoned, Cold, & Blue, Tore Up
Curtis Salgado & the Stilettos (1991) - Curtis Salgado & The Stilettos
By: Curtis Salgado & The Stilettos
Credited Role:Bass
Song List: More Love, Less Attitude, You Love Me and I Don't Blame You...
Heritage Of The Blues: Phone Booth (Rmst) (2003) - Robert Cray
By: Robert Cray
Credited Role:Bass
Song List: Phone Booth, Don't Touch Me, Porch Light
Anthology: Sound+Vision [2 CD & DVD] (2004) - B.B. King
By: B.B. King
Credited Role:Bass
Song List: How Blue Can You Get?, Sneakin' Around, Help the Poor
Essential Blues, Vol. 3 (1999) - Various Artists
By: Various Artists
Credited Role:Bass
Song List: You Can't Always Get What You Want, Got My Mojo Working, Yo...
Red Blooded Blues (1995) - Various Artists
By: Various Artists
Credited Role:Bass
Song List: I Wonder, Don't Burn Down the Bridge, Chill Out (Things Gon...
Gold Blues / Various (Rmst) (2006) - Various Artists
By: Various Artists
Credited Role:Bass
Song List: Walkin' The Streets, On The Hook, Woke Up This Morning
Martin Scorsese Presents the Blues: B.B. King (2003) - B.B. King
By: B.B. King
Credited Role:Bass
Song List: Three O'Clock Blues, Everyday I Have The Blues, Sneakin' Ar...
Blues Masters, Vol. 17: More Postmodern Blues (1998) - Various Artists
By: Various Artists
Credited Role:Bass
Song List: Statesboro Blues, Walking The Back Streets And Crying, Boog...
Blues Classics: Millennium Collection (Rmst) / Var (2003) - Various Artists
By: Various Artists
Credited Role:Bass
Song List: The Thrill Is Gone, I'd Rather Go Blind, Wang Dang Doodle
Woman Like Me (2003) - Bettye LaVette
By: Bettye LaVette
Credited Role:Bass
Song List: Serves Him Right, The Forecast, Thru The Winter
Standing At The Crossroads (2006) - Frankie Lee
By: Frankie Lee
Credited Role:Bass, Rhythm Section
Song List: I Wish I Had A Dime, High Horse, I Need Lots Of Love
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Bad and Blue (2000) - Jimmy Dillon
By: Jimmy Dillon
Credited Role:Guitar (Bass)
Song List: Break the Chain, Crave, Sea of Blues
Payin' for My Sins (1999) - Grady Champion
By: Grady Champion
Credited Role:Bass
Song List: I'm Smilin' Again, You Got Some Explaining To Do, Good As N...
Catfish for Supper (1996) - Jon Sholle
By: Jon Sholle
Credited Role:Bass
Song List: Mississippi Gal, Plum Cake, Sweet Kind Of Love
Going Back Home (1994) - Frankie Lee
By: Frankie Lee
Credited Role:Bass
Song List: Finders Keepers, Too Busy Thinking About My Baby, One Stone...
Soul of Freddie Hughes (1997) - Freddie Hughes
By: Freddie Hughes
Credited Role:Bass
Song List: Do My Thing, Save Our Love, Nick Of Time
Blues Masters, Vol. 9: Postmodern Blues (1993) - Various Artists
By: Various Artists
Credited Role:Bass
Song List: Wah Wah Blues, The Thrill Is Gone, I'll Play The Blues For ...
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