Richard Weissman (born January 21, 1935) is an American singer, composer, banjo player, author and teacher.

Life and career

He was born in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

, and studied at Goddard College in

Vermont Vermont () is a state in the northeast New England region of the United States. Vermont is bordered by the states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, and New York to the west, and the Canadian province of Quebec to ...

. After learning to play

banjo The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and usually made of plastic, or occasionally animal skin. Early forms of the instrument were fashi ...

, he moved to New York City, where he co-founded

The Journeymen The Journeymen were an American folk music trio in the early 1960s, comprising John Phillips, Scott McKenzie, and Dick Weissman. Formation and career John Phillips and Scott McKenzie (born Philip Blondheim) were childhood friends and had sung t ...

with John Phillips and

Scott McKenzie Scott McKenzie (born Philip Wallach Blondheim III; January 10, 1939 – August 18, 2012) was an American singer and songwriter who recorded the 1967 hit single and generational anthem " San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Some Flowers in Your Hair)" ...

in 1961. The group recorded three albums and seven singles for

Capitol Records Capitol Records, LLC (known legally as Capitol Records, Inc. until 2007) is an American record label distributed by Universal Music Group through its Capitol Music Group imprint. It was founded as the first West Coast-based record label of note ...

before breaking up in 1964. Weissman released a solo album ''The Things That Trouble My Mind'' for Capitol in 1964, before moving into a career as a studio musician, record producer and songwriter. In 1972 Weissman moved to Colorado and began writing instructional books for banjo and guitar, which were published by Mel Bay. To date, he has written 15 published books on music and the music business and has written over fifty instructional folios for various music publishers. He later became a tenured professor in the Music & Entertainment Industry program at the

University of Colorado The University of Colorado (CU) is a system of public universities in Colorado. It consists of four institutions: University of Colorado Boulder, University of Colorado Colorado Springs, University of Colorado Denver, and the University of Co ...

at Denver. In 1979, Weissman recorded a solo album on

Kicking Mule Records Kicking Mule Records was an American independent record label, founded in Berkeley, California in 1971 by guitarist Stefan Grossman and Eugene "ED" Denson, formerly co-owner of Takoma Records. The company's name comes from the country blues sexu ...

, ''Modern Banjo - Mountain Style''. As stated on the jacket, this was a great challenge for him. He dedicated the album to guitarist Sam Brown because he "thought that he (Sam) might have liked some of the music on this record" and because "Sam Brown (was) one of my favorite guitarists." Brown died shortly after the album was completed. According to Dick, "a victim of the music business, New York City, and his own frustrations." Between 1994 and 2005, Weissman recorded three additional solo albums, for the Folk Era, Wind River and Long Bridge folk labels. In 2016 Weissman's musical memoir ''The Music Never Stops: A Journey Into the Music of the Unknown, The Forgotten, The Rich & Famous'' was published.''The Music Never Stops: A Journey Into the Music of the Unknown, The Forgotten, The Rich & Famous''
Centerstream Publishing, 2016.

References

External links

*
Performer Entry at All Music Guide
Living people 1935 births American singer-songwriters {{US-singer-songwriter-stub