After So Long With Richard David Spano

I first heard Richard David Spano’s song “After So Long” about 3 years ago, after I picked up a beaten-up copy of Jack of Hearts at a local thrift store here in Phoenix, Arizona. I got the record home, cleaned it up, and played it fairly loud on the home stereo. As the song started, it was very apparent that there was a lot of emotion behind this track – with the drums seemingly fumbling behind muffled flute tones and twangy guitar riffs. I paused the track about 20 seconds in, decided to sit, open a bottle of wine and fully enjoy. Richard’s voice escalates as the song builds, and the mood shifts about halfway through as the pace is quickened and the song changes entirely. The song winds down, the words, drum beat, and guitar strokes are drawn out and slowed much like how my evening was playing out. I knew I had stumbled onto something fantastic. Sharing an evening with Jack of Hearts compelled me to dive deeper into who Richard David Spano was.

Born and raised in New York City, NY, Richard David Spano’s love for music came from his adopted father who, along with his uncle, built their own in-home stereo hi-fi. They would blare big band, classical and opera at all hours. Spano began playing music in 1964, and eventually won his first guitar in a class quiz contest. The prizes were an all expense paid trip to the Bahamas or a 12 string guitar. He rushed to the payphone to call home and ask his mother what he should accept. She lovingly replied, “The trip would be nice, but you’d always have the guitar”. This prophetic act would have a long-lasting effect on Spano. Starting out playing in 1964 as a counselor at Scout camp, Spano led singalongs on Family Day. From there he joined his first band The Quasars in 1966, a trio of friends who would stage backyard concerts and play local talent shows. “Being asked to sing Dion’s song ‘Abraham, Martin, and John’ for a Catholic School memorial assembly after the assassination of Robert Kennedy was a memorable moment” Spano remarks. As the band began to take on more local shows and play more frequently, Spano was able to save and eventually pay his way through private school with the help of a scholarship. When asked about writing his original material, Spano modestly responded “I don’t remember writing songs, there was too much originality flying out of the radio.” As his post-high school experiences began, his early influences consisted of Paul Simon (whom Spano interviewed while working for a college radio station), and Bruce Springsteen.

As Spano got older, he refined his songwriting and lyricism, culminating in his 1981 full-length LP ‘Jack of Hearts’. He described the process of creating the album as “just a collection of original songs and a good backup band. I had access to a recording School in NYC that allowed us to record at very reduced rates using students as engineers. My mother agreed to help finance it, crazy enough”. The record was pressed through private label OUTSIDER RECORDS, based out of New York. “Outsider was just that in the 1980’s. Not Sony, not A&M, we were rebels” Spano says. A particular track on the album, ‘Gunplay on the Avenue’ is heavily influenced by Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’ and ‘Darkness on the Edge of Town’. Spano obtained a bootleg of a Springsteen concert in 1979, learned his song ’Point Blank’, and decided it fit on the album. He applied for permissions and wrote a royalty check to Springsteen for $35. As it turns out, Springsteen completely re-wrote the song, so Spano’s version is a truly “unreleased” Bruce Springsteen piece.

Spano and the backup band toured from 1982 through 1989, playing songs from Jack of Hearts as well as other covers. As touring began to fizzle, members of the band splintered and Spano began to steer his attention toward the production side of music. Since the early ’90s, Spano has been heavily involved with his full-service special event consulting and production planning company called Event Realization. Some past clients include Emy Lou Harris, Chic Corea, Gary Burton, Ravi Shankar, and Arlo Guthrie. After all his years playing music professionally, producing others’ records, and promoting their concerts, Spano is currently creating an original, 15-track album for an anticipated Spring 2022 release.

Mr. Spano graciously allowed Forager Records to interview him for the upcoming release of ‘Sky Dust Drifter’ - which includes the track ‘After So Long’ from ‘Jack of Hearts’.