Short Bio
Randy is a producer, composer and contempory guitarist as well as the CEO of Harvest Road Music. He divides his time between managing & producing music for the label and performing solo & with his own band.
Over his career Rigby, has been awarded many RIAA Platinum awards for his music production work with Sony Music, TIME/LIFE and Vineyard Music. He has produced music and performed with a long list of artists including Richie Furay (Poco, Buffalo Springfield) & Bill Medley (Righteous Brothers).
Rigby started learning to play guitar when he was 11 years old. George Harrison of the Beatles was his formative inspiration. In junior high school, he took an interest in jazz and began emulating Wes Montgomery & Howard Roberts, as well as rock & blues heroes Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix & B.B.King.
It is Rigby’s unique blend of jazz and rock elements that have made him a in-demand sideman. With the release of El Encanto, the debut recording from Randy’s own band Blue Latitude, he has stepped to the forefront as a composer, in addition to demonstrating his prowess as a powerful and innovative soloist.
Along his musical journey, latin & brazilian music has also cast it’s spell. The songs on the 2007 released CD, El Encanto, reveal the influences of Sergio Mendes, Carlos Antonio Jobim & Cal Tjader and loom largely over Randy’s writing. Randy’s current performances could best be described as “pop instrumentals with world and electronica elements”.
Complete Bio
Randy's own musical story began in Orange County, California when his mother bought him a guitar as a present after minor surgery when he was 10 years old. He was only mildly interested, until he heard the Beatles. Then he was on a fast track to learn everything he heard. In junior high, a friend's dad, a professional jazz musician, gave him guitarist Howard Roberts LP, "H.R Is A Dirty Guitar Player", which he listened to every morning while getting ready for school. Other influential events in Randy's musical development were hearing Wes Montgomery, Eric Clapton (Cream), Jimi Hendrix and Robby Krieger (Doors) perform live, while he was still in junior high school. He later spent every afternoon after high school huddled over his turntable trying to learn every note Michael Bloomfield played on the "Long Time Comin'" LP by the Electric Flag.
Randy's popular Southern California band, "Section IV" played a million gigs in beach cities up and down the California coast, including "The Teenage Fair", hippie festivals, singles apartment parties and countless high school dances. While at Cal State Fullerton, Randy had the opportunity to study jazz improvisation with Fred Katz of the groundbreaking "Chico Hamilton Quarter" and attended some group studies with his boyhood idol, Howard Roberts.
During these college days, he met L.A. producer/engineer Buddy King (still the owner of LA's Sound Castle Studios). Buddy signed Randy's band "The Barrelhouse Band" to his Pure Joy record label. Although the band had some minor successes, Buddy taught Randy as much as he could about studio engineering, music production, while also giving him many opportunities as a session guitarist.
After college, Randy put together a stellar jazz/rock band that covered music from all his favorite artists. His new group, "The Bob Bitchen Band" performed songs from "Weather Report", "Steely Dan", "Stevie Wonder", "Tom Scott & The LA Express" and became a very popular regional act along California's Central Coast.
In 1978, Randy recorded his first LP with the Contemporary Christian group, "Bethlehem" led by Danny Daniels for "Maranatha! Music. Al Perkins, steel guitarist with Stephen Stills, Flying Burrito Brothers, Emmylou Harris, was the producer and with Al's encouragement, Randy's creative guitar-driven arrangements helped send the LP into the CCM Top Ten. For the next 5 years, calls began to increase and Randy toured & performed with many of the top Christian performers of the time, Danny Daniels & Bethlehem, Darrel Mansfield, Bob Ayala, The Keith Green Memorial Tour, Oden Fong etc.
In 1982, Randy's musicianship came to the attention of John Wimber, a renowned Los Angeles musician, who had formerly managed and produced "The Righteous Brothers". John was traveling internationally at the time, as a conference speaker and pressed Randy into service as the music director for his events. The demand for the music featured at the conferences became so great that Wimber hired Randy to start a new record label, Vineyard Music to record and distribute this new music. Soon Vineyard was leading the way with the new "Modern Worship" music and the label was selling millions of units. It was during this time that Randy's music production skills were put to their greatest use as the label's recording output reached its zenith. The RIAA awarded Randy numerous Platinum Records for the inclusion of his productions on Epic Records WOW Worship series, and TIME/LIFE''s Songs For Worship series
By the 90's, Randy was ready to get out of the studio and tour again. That opportunity came with Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee, Richie Furay, former lead singer with "Buffalo Springfield", "Poco", & "Souther/Hillman Furay". After producing the new record, "In My Father's House", Richie and Randy assembled a seasoned touring band to revisit many of Richie's west coast music venues. Over the last 8 years of touring, Randy has had the opportunity to share the stage with many of his favorite musicians, Timothy Schmidt (Eagles), Jim Messina (Loggins & Messina), Rusty Young (Poco), Emmylou Harris, Ricky Skaggs, Bill Medley (Righteous Brothers) & Wynona Judd.
Settling into the music production scene in Denver, Colorado in 2001, Randy began performing live with production partner Ed Edwards and their band, BLUE LATITUDE afterhours at many of Denver's jazz/blues clubs. From their regular performances at the Sambuca Jazz Cafe, emerged a body of original material that makes up the band's soon to be released recording. Randy will be touring to promote the new CD frequently in 2007 and hopes to continue recording and performing regularly at this stage of his life.