Some women can fake it. They plaster a big ol' smile on their face, wear silly outfits and say things like "y'all come back now." But Kim Richey just couldn't maintain the cowgirl façade.
"When my first record came out, they had me going around playing and stuff at country radio stations, and I just felt that I didn't belong," Richey says. "People there thought I was suspect because I drank iced coffee."
Richey laughs, which she does a lot. It's been more than a decade since the major label Mercury Nashville tried, unsuccessfully, to make her a country star. Instead, the singer/songwriter found her niche as a scribe for hire (a tune she cowrote appears on James Morrison's debut album Undiscovered) and a performer with an eclectic résumé, including her latest release, Chinese Boxes, a classic pop offering produced by Giles Martin.
The son of legendary producer George Martin, Giles helmed The Beatles remix album Love that came out last year.
Richey and Giles met in '02 when he came to work in Nashville. She lived near Giles in London while he patched together Love. He would return from the studio at night, and she would get to hear the tracks. When Love by Cirque Du Soleil premiered in Las Vegas last year, Richey was there.
"Giles worked for three years on Love," Richey says. "Wait, better put that I think it was three years and that I have a terrible memory. I was finally ready to make a record just as he was finishing it. And I thought it sure would be fun spend more time in London and be with my friends and work with Giles."
The producer finished Love and then he and Richey embarked on Chinese Boxes. The album boasts a classic, warm — and yes, Beatle-esque — pop sound. Richey's crystalline vocals are at once gorgeous and gripping. The songwriting is topnotch, too, with numbers like "Jack and Jill" ranking among her best.
"Giles was the one who really had the idea from the get-go for the sound," Richey says. "What he really wanted to focus on most was the vocals and place everything else around it and try and make a record that's more timeless — not try to be trendy."
I mention to Richey that George Martin always looks regal in the photos of him working with The Beatles. I ask if the regal description fits Giles. "I don't know about regal," she says with a laugh. "Giles is funny as hell. His dad is really fun, too. In fact, Giles is one of the most funny people I've ever met. In the studio, you don't really even feel like you're working."
Richey is talking by phone from her home outside Nashville; she's prepping for a tour that brings her to Tampa for WMNF's Birthday Bash on Saturday. She'll have a full band with her to re-create the lush sound of her new record. The rest of the musicians in the group are men, which means on the road there are certain things about the singer to which they just can't relate.
"This weekend I'm trying to get things tied up and pack — usually I end up freaking out the day before," Richey says. "Last time I packed early but left all my bathroom things — toiletries, beauty products, all that stuff — behind. The guys couldn't understand why I was in the back of the bus making screaming noises."
Richey mentions that's she's trying to sell her Tennessee home and the five acres on which it sits. She relocated to Nashville in the mid '80s. Back then, artists such as Lyle Lovett, Steve Earle and k.d. lang had temporarily made mainstream country music cool with songs that were more akin to the kind Richey pens. She had a musician friend in Music City getting work, and Richey decided to make the move.
"I think I got tricked," she jokes.
Richey built her reputation as a songwriter and then signed a deal with Mercury. Her self-titled debut disc came out in 1995 and produced the minor hits "Those Words We Said" and "Just My Luck," which just missed cracking the country Top 40.
"I never wanted to be famous. I see people who are really famous and I just cringe," the singer says with a laugh. "I'm definitely not in it for the money. I got to make the records that I'm really into."
Richey decided to switch musical directions after seeing Gillian Welch perform at Nashville's The Station Inn. "I remember thinking this fits me a lot better," she says.
In between the release of her first and second albums, Richey cowrote a song called "Believe Me Baby (I Lied)." The tune was a huge hit in concert, and people in Nashville took notice — people like country superstar Trisha Yearwood.
"They were asking for the song, but we wanted to hold onto it," Richey says. "But then I decided I wanted to go a different direction, and we let her record the song. And it was a big hit."
Indeed. It reached No. 1 on Billboard's Hot Country Singles & Tracks. "I only did music because I love music," she says, and then laughs. "Which probably explains the disastrous career decisions that I have made over the years."
This article appears in Sep 12-18, 2007.