Richard Trice (November 16, 1917 – April 6, 2000) was an American blues guitarist, singer and songwriter. He released two singles. He lived most of his life in his native North Carolina and played in its regional blues style, often referred to as
Piedmont blues
Piedmont blues (also known as East Coast, or Southeastern blues) refers primarily to a guitar style, which is characterized by a fingerpicking approach in which a regular, alternating thumb bass string rhythmic pattern supports a syncopated melo ...
,
East Coast blues
Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...
Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Chapel Hill is a town in Orange, Durham and Chatham counties in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Its population was 61,960 in the 2020 census, making Chapel Hill the 17th-largest municipality in the state. Chapel Hill, Durham, and the state ca ...
. His family had moved to
Raleigh
Raleigh (; ) is the capital city of the state of North Carolina and the seat of Wake County in the United States. It is the second-most populous city in North Carolina, after Charlotte. Raleigh is the tenth-most populous city in the Southeas ...
by 1920.
Music was an interest in the family, and he learned to play the guitar at an early age. As an adolescent he partnered with his older brother, Willie Trice, playing at dances. In the 1930s, they formed a duo and began playing a
ragtime
Ragtime, also spelled rag-time or rag time, is a musical style that flourished from the 1890s to 1910s. Its cardinal trait is its syncopated or "ragged" rhythm. Ragtime was popularized during the early 20th century by composers such as Scott ...
-influenced blues, common in the
Carolinas
The Carolinas are the U.S. states of North Carolina and South Carolina, considered collectively. They are bordered by Virginia to the north, Tennessee to the west, and Georgia to the southwest. The Atlantic Ocean is to the east.
Combining Nort ...
in that period. In
Durham, North Carolina
Durham ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of North Carolina and the county seat of Durham County, North Carolina, Durham County. Small portions of the city limits extend into Orange County, North Carolina, Orange County and Wake County, North Carol ...
, they befriended Blind Boy Fuller in 1933. Fuller, at least ten years Richard's elder, greatly influenced him.
Through their relationship with Fuller, the brothers were recorded for
Decca Records
Decca Records is a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis (Decca), Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934 by Lewis, Jack Kapp, American Decca's first president, and Milton Rackmil, who later became American ...
in
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
in July 1937. Willie recorded two sides (issued as being by "Welly Trice") with Richard playing second guitar: "Come On in Here Mama" and "Let Her Go God Bless Her". (At the same session, Richard—billed as Rich Trice recorded his own compositions "Come On Baby" and "Trembling Bed Springs Blues"; these were not issued for a while.)
Trice moved to
Newark, New Jersey
Newark ( , ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey and the seat of Essex County and the second largest city within the New York metropolitan area. In October 1946, billed as Little Boy Fuller, he recorded two sides for
Savoy Records
Savoy Records is an American record company and label established by Herman Lubinsky in 1942 in Newark, New Jersey. Savoy specialized in jazz, rhythm and blues, and gospel music.
In September 2017, Savoy was acquired by Concord Bicycle Music.
...
, "Shake Your Stuff" and "Lazy Bug Blues". He recorded several other tracks over the next six years, none of which were released.
In the 1950s, Trice moved back to North Carolina and joined a
gospel
Gospel originally meant the Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words an ...
quartet. He performed at house parties, juke joints, and tobacco warehouses until the early 1960s. He was interviewed by music historians in the 1970s, but he never played blues guitar again.
The film ''Shine On: Richard Trice and the Bull City Blues'', released in 2000, chronicled Trice's life, the blues music particular to his region, and his spiritual rediscovery. It contained music by Trice, Blind Boy Fuller,
Reverend Gary Davis
Reverend Gary Davis, also Blind Gary Davis (born Gary D. Davis, April 30, 1896 – May 5, 1972), was a blues and gospel singer who was also proficient on the banjo, guitar and harmonica. Born in Laurens, South Carolina and blind since infancy ...
,
John Dee Holeman
John Dee Holeman (April 4, 1929April 30, 2021) was an American Piedmont blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter. His music includes elements of Texas blues, R&B and African-American string-band music. In his younger days he was also known for ...
Burnsville, North Carolina
Burnsville is a town that serves as the county seat of Yancey County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 1,693 at the 2010 census.
History
The town was founded on March 6, 1834, from land conveyed by John "Yellow Jacket" Bailey, ...
, at the age of 82. He was interred at Mount Sinai Baptist Church Cemetery, in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, alongside Willie, who had died in 1976.