Profile: Richy Kicklighter

On Thursday nights at The Irish Rover, in Sarasota, you'll see Richy Kicklighter onstage, quietly creating or enhancing a mood, with his subtle and emotive guitar leads for The Instigators. At Marina Jack's on Sunday evenings, he alternately blends and showcases mellow strums and deft picking into the reggae dance music of Democracy. Wednesdays, you can hear him at Mattison's City Grille, where he plays with Big T and the Tornadoes. Richy's guitar playing is both workmanlike and brilliant by turns. Lucky for us here in Sarasota, you can see him in action all over town.

His specialty is playing blues, jazz, R & B, worldbeat and reggae, on both acoustic and electric guitars. Through a long career that's taken him from Sarasota to New York to Atlanta to Macon and touring all over, Richy has played with the best of them, including Rufus Thomas, Eddie Floyd, Neil Larsen, Sammy Lawhorn, Little Johnny Taylor and Bo Diddley. He was a co-founder of the legendary R&B/Blues band Cool Breeze, which toured the blues circuit from New York to Florida, sharing the bill with Stevie Ray Vaughn, Room Full of Blues, Night Hawks, Average White Band, Dixie Dregs, John Hammond, and others. He played with The Instigators for 8 years and rejoined them in January when they re-entered the Sarasota live music scene.

Along with live performances, Richy writes original music and, through his publishing company, Midnight Pass Music, handles music licensing, supervision, and production for film and TV projects internationally. A very busy guy.

You can see Richy Kicklighter in action, when he sits in with The Michael Kach Group at The Irish Rover from 7:30 - 10PM tonight, Tuesday, May 4th. No cover, smoke-free, family-friendly, the Rover is located on Gateway Avenue in Gulf Gate, Sarasota.