Richard Landis

Richard Landis is an American studio musician, recording artist, singer/songwriter, and music producer. He has over 40 years of professional credits and chart success including a share of the 1994 CMA award for Album of the Year. At years end, Billboard ranked Landis 18th of the top 25 producers in country music. Landis has production tenure with several acclaimed labels including Capitol, Columbia, and RCA. In 2007 Landis opened his own studio in Nashville called Fool on the Hill and as of 2013 engineers and produces music there.^[2] His accomplishments include musical credits with acts like Van Stephenson, Poco, and Vince Gill. He has production credits from Juice Newton to Red Rider and The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.

History

Richard Landis attended The High School of Music & Art and is a member of the graduating class of 1962.^[3] Landis is an accomplished pianist and was called "one devil of a piano player" by Bob Glassenberg in a Billboard article.^[4]

In 1970 Richard Landis formed an acoustic blues band with Spencer Davis and Peter Jameson.^[5][6] They released It's Been So Long on Mediarts and the band toured with POCO in 1971.^[7] It's Been So Long was produced by Jay Sentor who spotted Landis' talent and announced his plans to produce a Landis album. He said in a Billboard article that he "planned to cut that heavy piano player in the Davis & Jameson group as a solo performer, backed by a nine-piece band."^[8]

In 1972 Richard Landis released his solo album Natural Causes^[9] to a mixed reception and limited success. The album produced two singles, "A Man Who Sings" and "Natural Causes" which peaked on the adult contemporary charts at 35 and 40 respectively.^[10][11] 1972 saw Landis' first commercial production credit as well. He produced Peter Allens second album, Tenterfield Saddler, released on Metromedia.^[12] Landis also appeared on the album with musician credits.^[13]

In 1978 Richard Landis was named West Coast director, talent acquisition for Capitol records based in Los Angeles. Landis previously held an identical position in New York City as East Coast director.^[14]

In 1981 Richard Landis began producing music for Juice Newton. They released her multi-platinum album, Juice which charted two #1 singles and one #2. In an interview Juice Newton cited her lucky break as being the day she met Richard Landis: "I believe that hooking up with Richard Landis who produced those first big hits on the Juice LP (Queen of Hearts, Angel in the Morning) was my lucky break."^[15]

While living in Los Angeles, Landis owned and operated a recording studio in his house called The Grey Room, where artists like Vince Gill, Tori Amos, Joan Armatrading, Tina Turner, and The Smithereens recorded and mixed their albums. In the late 80's and early 90's there was a battle between the legit studio owners in LA, who had to pay all the overhead a business incurs, and this new breed of high-end home studios. They came after Richard and shut him down. So he made a deal with Jim David (Hal David's son) and rebuilt an exact duplicate of the Grey Room in a space in Jim David's One on One studios in North Hollywood. In 2012 it became 17 Hertz.

In 1992 Richard Landis was the VP of A&R for BNA Records. Lorrie Morgan left RCA Records and joined BNA to remain with Landis.^[16] Landis left his position with BNA in 1993 but continued to produce for the label on an independent basis, continuing his affiliation as a consultant.^[17]

In May 1994 Landis produced Lorrie Morgan's top 10 album, War Paint. He also co-wrote "If You Come Back From Heaven" which was one of the three singles released. It entered the Billboard country charts in June 1994 and peaked at #51.^[18] Also in 1994 Landis was one of 14 producers to receive a CMA Album of the Year award for Common Thread: The Songs of the Eagles. Landis produced the last track on the album, Lorrie Morgan's cover of "The Sad Café".^[19] Billboard's end of year special edition ranked the top 25 country music producers of 1994. Landis placed eighteenth on the list having produced 11 charted hits for that year.^[20]

Landis, along with James Stroud, co-owned a major recording studio in Nashville called LOUD RECORDING from 1993-2000, as well as an overdub and mixing suite next door called TOO LOUD.

In 2010 Richard Landis was nominated for the CMAA Album of the Year for production of Adam Brand's Hell of a Ride, an album which peaked at #19 on the ARIA Charts.^[21]

Discography

The table at right shows the breakdown of recordings in Richard Landis' production discography. All titles list Landis as either a musician, composer, and/or producer. For details see the main discography linked above.

References

External links

• Outlandis Music Group Contact information