Richard Peter Davis

• Race: What Blacks and Whites Think and Feel About the American Obsession (1992) by Studs Terkel

The performing arts are in Richie's blood, being born to parents that met while they were both members of The Chicago Repertory Group during the New Deal years of the 1930s performing in politically oriented "lefty shows", a precursor to the Federal Theatre Project. Richie grew up in Chicago in the Jeffrey Manor neighborhood located on the southeast side of the city near the old steel mills along with an older brother (Andrew Davis) and sister. As a pre-teen Richie constantly listened to music on his transistor radio to the local Chicago radio stations WVON, WCFL, WLS, and WGRT listening to a large variety of pop music that would influence his later musical life. He couldn't get enough of the music-variety television shows of the time, his favorites being the early Sunday morning Jubilee Showcase and Hee-Haw. A musical revelation occurred when he borrowed from the local library a copy of the latest album release by B. B. King "Live in Cook County Jail". In 1969, while attending sixth grade, Richie encountered a classmate that brought an old beat-up guitar to school (Sears Silvertone with in-case amp). Richie started to play the guitar picking out notes on the strings to a popular tune of the time and got a tremendous response from an audience of on-looking students. His musical career had started. Around this same time his older brother Andrew returned from a trip to Europe and gave Richie a copy of the album "Are You Experienced" by a new guitar artist very popular in England at the time, Jimi Hendrix. Also during this time period, the neighborhood that Richie and his family had been living in went through a major change for about two years, from a population of about 99% white to about 99% black, due to a real estate practice going on at the time in Chicago known as Redlining. His politically oriented parents chose to make a statement by deciding to remain living in the changing neighborhood. Regarding this change, Richie was interviewed years later by Studs Terkel for his book on race. This occurrence added to his musical experience as he acquired skill at playing the guitar and as a result he began jamming with local area musical talent which was a mix of black and white music including pop music, funk and R&B. Specific musicians that have influenced his musical world are rhythm guitarists Eric Gale, Cornell Dupree, Nile Rodgers, Tony Maiden, Al McKay. Other musical influences are James Brown, Prince, Johnny Winter, John McLaughlin, Frank Zappa, and Wes Montgomery. Up until this time Richie had not really had any formal training on the guitar or music.