Stereo Embers The Podcast 0489: Anne Richmond Boston (The Swimming Pool Q's)

“I Should Be Happy”

Singer/keyboardist Anne Richmond Boston showed up on the musical timeline in the late ’70s when she joined the Atlanta indie rock outfit The Swimming Pool Q’s. Before the goldrush of bands like R.E.M., Soul Asylum, O Positive, Big Dipper and Poi Dog Pondering signing to major labels, The Swimming Pool Q’s kind of led the way, inking deals in the mid-’80s with A&M and Capitol Records. They put out five marvelous albums, including Blue Tomorrow and The Deep End, toured with Devo and The Police and garnered a reputation for being a spot-on live act, their brand of idiosyncratic pop filled with jittery rhythms, sterling sax fills, jangling guitars and sonorous vocals. Richmond Boston left the band in 1989 but roared right back with her 1990 debut solo album Big House Of Time. Filled with soaring originals like Dreaming and covers of numbers by Neil Young, John Hiatt and The Lovin’ Spoonful, Big House Of Time made a huge splash at college radio. And then? Well, Richmond Boston designed album covers, worked in graphic arts, sang with The Drive By Truckers and Widespread Panic and rejoined the Q’s. And that was that. But what about the rumored follow-up to Big House Of Time? Well, it was recorded and sitting on a shelf in a closet in Richmond Boston’s house. Titled I Should Be Happy, her sophomore album was worth the wait. A riveting collection that’s filled with meditative and melodic numbers, I Should Be Happy is contemplative and moving and finds Richmond Boston tackling the big questions with peerless harmonic grace. 

www.annerichmondboston.bandcamp.com
www.bombshellradio.com
www.stereoembersmagazine.com
www.alexgreenbooks.com

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