Rich Goldberg

Musician in New Jersey

So....first a little history. Sadly, I attempted violin as a young child and was brutally bad. My parents had some how had me listening to classical music at that time which probably explains the violin attempt. Then a miracle happened...First, the Beatles arrived so, bye bye classical & then my aunt who was buying a new piano (the wealthier end of the family) offered me her old one. I'm 8 1/2 so I was still agreeable to anything so I promised to take lessons and really work at it. I lied...After a year and a half I quit.....until I discovered Elton John. That was it! I was determined to be a musician. In the late 70's I joined a fairly succesful 50's/60's band called Slick. I played 6 nights a week and worked full time at a department store as a stock man (person in this politically correct universe). Exhaustion wasn't considered. I went to gigs with a thermos of tea and lemon since I was always sick. This lasted until the early 80's. I joined a band called Loose Change which (under my direction) played anything from the 1960's- whatever was current. That lasted 12 years. Many years of putting my ears in harms way and breathing in way to much bar smoke told me it was time to quit. This was somewhere around 1993/94 (I don't remember). The next time I played live was in 2004 at my local block party. That's what I needed to get the itch to play again but, I was working in retail at Sam Ash Music and simply had no time to gig. In 2007 I was offered a better job which offered me a 9-5 existence. The economy turned sour and earning extra cash became a priority. And then it happened....I walked into a local Italian restaurant called Vera's Trattoria to pick up a pizza and lo and behold (fancy words ehh?) a piano player was pumping out Jazz licks. Can you imagine? Live music! I decided to approach the owner to see if I could score a gig. He decided to try me the following week. I was hired as a permanent fixture on Saturday nights. Thus The Richie G Review was born. "A one man band Piano/vocals using backing tracks and a voice harmonizer to create a full band sound. My current song list represents over seventy artists including Elton John, Billy Joel , James Taylor, The Beatles and hits from the 1960's thru today. I'm up to 400 tunes and counting- Booking email [email protected]." My gig dates can be found at www.onemanbandrichieg.com