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The Sidewalk Boys are half folk, half raggy blues, and half crazy adding up to more dirt than came out of the hole. This band of original musicians, each with separate realities, sprang from the first RPM Challenge and have stayed the course. Blogging along with the album creation threw another artistic element onto the heap. The goal here, of course, is to end up with a three dimensional junk pile of words and music, complete with all the inspirations and scrapbook images. If a few metaphors are abused here and there or one or two alliterations are held hostage, that’s just the cost of doing music. Metaphors are expendable, and cheap.

“Old Sidewalk” Tom Richter has laid down a foundation of folk, from ballads to blues, for the last forty years using only acoustic tools to handcraft his tunes

Brian Goetz, "The Chunkman," lives on the front porch swing all day and sips lemonade while writing songs that can snap you back home in the turn of a phrase.

Dave Lemieux is a finely tuned Steinway in the middle of the wilderness. His tunes have the awesome power of passion and simplicity.

Together they are the Sidewalk Boys, with shovels in hand, playing music that springs from the latest holes dug prospecting their way out of another american ballad.

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Brian Goetz spent his formative years in the late 70’s and early 80’s in Northwestern Ohio getting involved with music “wherever he could.” Starting as a roadie/tech/soundman for his brother’s band “Westwind” on through his current work as Guitarist/Singer-Songwriter/Producer for the Grunge-Folk band “The Sidewalk Boys,” Brian has spent thirty years delving in everything from Classic Rock to Blues and Bluegrass.

Six years in the making, “You are Invited to Brian” covers his spectrum of influences that range from Neil Young, John Prine, Tom Waits and John Hiatt to Dave Mathews and Pat Metheny. Brian melds these influences with his own personal take on “Wood, Light, Love, and Dirt.” Employing the help of numerous guest appearances by long-time musician friends, Brian has created and fourteen track autobiographical tour of his life experiences and loves. Organic and electric -- “You are Invited to Brian.”

Tom Richter is a refugee from the folk music business, if there is such a thing. Born of the nineteen sixties singer/songwriter phenomenon Tom now sits in his basement surrounded by articles once owned by his Great Grandpa Gus.

Tom moved to New England from his native northern New York twenty years ago after a handful of years on the coffeehouse circuit playing in many small towns and colleges. His move to Portsmouth in the mid-eighties landed him in the middle of a folk revival of sorts in and around the Press Room and other music clubs. He also landed in Fishtraks recording studio to complete various projects before taking to the basement with his band of Bernoulli Sailors.

Tom’s recording life in Portsmouth began in 1987 with “Best Years.” The Portsmouth Magazine praised the disk by saying that, “It is an irony of songwriting that introspection is meant for public consumption. Take Tom Richter’s ‘Best Years’. If you had to pick a single word to describe this album’s mood it would have to be thoughtfulness. Richter writes songs like a storyteller but with a poet’s economy of words. He also makes a conscious effort to sprinkle the true stories with a liberal dose of metaphor.”

Tom continued building on his introspective themes with his 1990 release of “In the Old Port” (1990). The Manchester Union Leader described the disk as, “A romantic, haunting collection of tunes delivered so soothingly and convincingly it never seems to age, instead it becomes a welcome bit of nostalgia. The result…an original classic.” Noted folk music magazine, Sing Out! reviewed the disk and said, “New Englander Richter’s elusive voice (blending elements of John Denver and Ricky Skaggs) receives warming support from mandolin, accordion, autoharp among other instruments on this collection of oddly structured, yet poetic songs. Richter’s understated vocals blend with fellow Portsmouthian Susie Burke on several cuts is relaxed and natural. Christmas Song is accessible all year round.”

Face Magazine gave praise to Tom’s music by writing that, “Almost like the surrealist painters, the Portsmouth singer/songwriters are a genre nearly unto themselves. What Richter shares most with his compatriots is a songwriting bent toward everyday life, the elements of our historical background that brings us to where we are, and the larger events in the world that – even tangentially – formulate our tomorrows. In the best folk music tradition Richter delivers this cross-section of lives and times in a voice only his own. And so, without a lot of noise and pretense, Richter draws his picture, one that’s not likely to be branded high art. ‘In the Old Port’ is too unostentatious for that.”

And the New Hampshire Seacoast Sunday summed it all up by saying that, “Tom Richter’s ‘In the Old Port’ will appeal to a cross-section of listeners. Relaxing to listen to, his work begs to be played over and over again.”

During this period of time Tom continued to hone his lyrical and musical talents with appearances throughout the Seacoast region and was a regular at the Press Room. However, a brief bout with cancer and other life obligations forced Tom into a hiatus for most of the 90’s. Thankfully, Tom returned with new vigor and even more poetic insight and artistic resolve with his self-produced release of “Pathways” in 2000 and a reflective look back on his upstate New York roots with “Little Town” in 2004. Through these recordings Tom developed a musical partnership with fellow New Hampshire artists Ace Yates (bass and guitar) and Greg Zaino (zenDrum). Together, they are the “Bernoulli Sailors.” The Sailors completed their first project, “Big Storm” in 2003 and teamed up with Brian Goetz for the Chunkabillymusic produced release of “Abandoned Appliances” in 2006.

In between these projects Tom and Brian accepted the Wire’s RPMChallenge.com and released nine original songs written and recorded in February, 2006 as “The Sidewalk Boys,” and released on Chunkabillymusic.com.

The Face Magazine summed it all up, saying that, “Tom Richter’s music is charming, insightful, and easy to listen to…Yeah, Richter’s music sneaks up on you. That’s because the talent of the man behind it has aged so well. If you write this well you can afford to ambush folks with an unassuming delivery…Richter also does a convincing blues for a white guy from New Hampshire.”

March 18, 2006 -

The Sidewalk Boys are Tom Richter and Brian Goetz.

The Boys put aside ongoing works-in-progress for awhile so they could rise to The Wire's RPMChallenge by recording nine songs in February 2006. They ended up with Something Shiny.

You can preview and download the entire CD by clicking on "Music". The entire CD package can be heard here [click on "Music" above] and is also available from CDBaby.com.