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Show I : -v I ' , f A i y -S I t ! y'f rK J .,.,,,,. Jerry Riopelle To Sing This Weekend Jerry Riopelle will be appearing appear-ing at the C'est Bon Entertainment Entertain-ment Lounge this weekend, July 30 and 31. He is an artist whose work; both on record and onstage, refuses to be categorized. A French-Canadian, born in Detroit and raised in Tampa, Jerry spent 13 years in the Los Angeles music scene before embarking on a solo recording career. The brand of music he evolved during that time, working primarily from keyboards and the guitar, ranges from warm country to hard, stompin' rock. This singersongwriter producer pro-ducer first found employment in L.A. as a drummer for the Hollywood Argyles. He then worked as background vocalist on several Righteous Brothers records rec-ords as well as on many others produced by Phil Spector, for whom he soon became a staff writer and producer. He went on to produce and write hits for April and Nino and the Parade at A&M Records, where he also produced Brewer and Shipley and wrote "Thieves in the Choir" with Leon Russell for Russell's Asylum Choir album. This kept him alive long enough to make two records as a solo artist for Capitol and to compose the scores for several TV movies, including Rolling Man and Evil Roy Slade. Since then Jerry has played in concert everywhere from the Troubadour in West Hollywood to Central Park in New York, working with such artists as John Lee Hooker, John Klemmer, Lightnin' Hopkins, the Kinks, Don McLean, Merry Clayton and Poco. However, he says, his greatest musical influence remains re-mains "Salt Spring Slim, a madman running an acting therapy farm on an island in British Columbia." (It is rumored that S.S.S. makes magic in Hollywood under the name Stuart Margolin.) Jerry's debut album for ABC, Saving Grace, featured him singing and playing 12 originals. Billboard praised its "oddly compelling vocals and tight instrumental. in-strumental. . .its skillful simplicity." simplic-ity." Said Cash Box, "The strong points of the disk are many: from immaculate production to fastidious fastid-ious arrangement and performance." perform-ance." Now, on his second ABC LP, Take a Chance, the artist offers 11 more songs uthat fulfill the promise of Saving Grace. "It's a more spirited album than the first one," says Jerry, 'and I think it's a better one. That's the most exciting thing for me: getting better." |