“Music is like a virus you know … it finds things in your head, your heart, your gut … it finds you and takes you for a ride that for a lot of us it’s a ride that just becomes necessary. What would you do without the subway in New York, as bad as that can be. What would you do out raising hogs in the mud and shit without some help with that ride? So you just love it, need it, hell like your mother.”

Randy Lee Riviere: Farmhand Blues

The fourth solo album “Farmhand Blues” (2025) from Randy Lee Riviere is a collection of heavy duty, whisky soaked blues and roots rock with big guitars and pumping drums. The Montana singer songwriter teamed up again with renowned producer, drummer Tom Hambridge, to co-write and record the session in Nashville along with studio aces, Doug Lancio, Bob Britt, Michael Saint-Leon, Mike Rojas and Robert Kearns. The team takes Riviere’s ideas and fleshes them out into thought provoking works of art full of ear candy. Randy Lee Riviere’s music can certainly be described as blues. It could also be described as blues rock, rock, country rock, country, roots/Americana and more. Randy’s new album, Farmhand Blues, is another testament to all the different things that fly through his head. As you cruise through the fifteen tunes on this album you’ll hear lots of blues and blues rock tunes sprinkled with the other genres mentioned above.

(Randy Lee Riviere / Photo © by Jeff Fasano)

In addition to a lifetime of music, Randy, as a wildlife biologist, has been involved with large-scale efforts in the past working to protect and restore important elements of the Native American landscape. As you listen to the last 20 or so years of his work - through the Mad Buffalo era spanning four albums: “A Good Bad Road”, “Fool Stand”, “Wilderness”, and “Red and Blue”, then onto his solo Randy Lee Riviere work with his 2019 album “Wyoming”, 2021 record “Blues Sky”, 2024 project “Concrete Blues”, and now “Farmhand Blues” - you’ll hear all these musical gyrations previously mentioned. Over the years, Randy has been blessed with being able to work with some of the very best producers and musicians in the business.

Interview by Michael Limnios                Archive: Randy Lee Riviere, 2024 Interview

Special Thanks: Betsie Brown (Blind Raccoon) / Photos © by Jeff Fasano

How do you think that you have grown as an artist since you first started making music? What has remained the same about your music-making process?

I started writing non-sense songs, probably in high school. And it went on from there. We played some of these as I went along with different bands, but they did suck, and people let us know that pretty early on lol. Over the years I’ve done lots of things out there in the world and those experiences have added up and showed up for sure in my songwriting. I got serious about this stuff when I started making records with my first Mad Buffalo album ‘A Good Bad Road’. I think my music and songwriting has evolved over the eight records I’ve done now. … I do lots of ‘genres’ I guess … more rock/country rock early on … this evolved into what they call ‘Americana’ … whatever that is, and then into the more Blues Rock I’m doing these days. Lots of this blues emphasis is associated with working with the great Tom Hambridge. I’m digging the blues now because I can just get down and dirty ya know. It's a fantastic medium for delivering songs I’m finding. I can really pull out the grit in all the stuff I’ve done and have seen over the years … having worked with and observed real people out there working their asses off, many paycheck to paycheck. Not many trust funds out here! It’s a gritty world so I do lots of ‘human condition’ work these days. And have ranted about the state of the American Landscape from the beginning. Much of that associated with also being a wildlife biologist. 

How do you approach the process of songwriting, and are there any specific themes or emotions you tend to explore in your music? 

I don’t approach songwriting, it approaches me. It almost always starts with just picking up the guitar and banging out a chord or two, that inspires me to go in certain musical directions … then I’ll focus on the lyrics in much the same manner. Certainly what pops out of my head down to my fingers is driven by something that has been on my mind, something I’ve seen, something I’ve read.  So, song writing isn’t normally an “exploration” process with me, it's the music and words that just show up. What that is … from some higher being? Just the products of what I’m seeing, feeling, things I just absorb as I move along and just show up when I hit that guitar chord. I keep my songs simple mostly. There needs to be space for the music and lyrics to breathe. 

“Again, for me, blues is a great medium for delivering stories. Feelings. This is really important about the blues I think. It doesn’t need to be complicated, so you don’t have to work through all that machinery ... it’s, like, honestly right off the top of my head here …” (Randy Lee Riviere / Photo © by Jeff Fasano)

Do you have any interesting stories about the making of the new album “Farmhand Blues”?

Yeah, I got a gnarly Covid right in the middle of recording it. It was all I could do to punch through at 104 degrees! Then I had to step off for a bit … seriously thought I might be checking out. So Tom, God bless him, held it all together and we got it done over an extended period of time. 15 songs! That is seriously too many. But as usual we worked with some seriously great musicians that made it happen.

Why is it important to we preserve and spread the blues? What are you doing to keep your music relevant today, to develop it and present it to the new generation?

Again, for me, blues is a great medium for delivering stories. Feelings. This is really important about the blues I think. It doesn’t need to be complicated, so you don’t have to work through all that machinery ... it’s, like, honestly right off the top of my head here … “I was down main street, in front of the five and dime.  I had no nickels not even one damn dime” … so you have this 12 bar driving music in your head … Tom Hambridge on drums, Robert Kearns on base, Buddy Guy on the guitar or Billy Gibbons … your head is just bobbing you know … reminds me of ducks on a pond ... they’re serious head bobbers … You can FEEL the blues, you can feel your life, the world around you. Or it can just take you somewhere else, or forget about everything but the heartbeat of the song. I think a lot of folks would really benefit having a place where they can feel … just shut up and feel.

What keeps a musician passionate over the years? How does your hometown (Montana) that affect your music?

Music is like a virus you know … it finds things in your head, your heart, your gut … it finds you and takes you for a ride that for a lot of us it’s a ride that just becomes necessary. What would you do without the subway in New York, as bad as that can be. What would you do out raising hogs in the mud and shit without some help with that ride? So you just love it, need it, hell like your mother. That’s how deep it can go. With me, finishing a song I really like is one of the very best things in my life. So, yeah you can be passionate about music, but also need it to survive. 

I’m a product of America. I’ve been in lots of places here. I have places in Montana and Tennessee and travel around a lot. Looking, feeling, writing.

Randy Lee Riviere - Home

(Randy Lee Riviere / Photo © by Jeff Fasano)