
Walt Richardson
Season 1 Episode 6 | 11m 13sVideo has Closed Captions
Enjoy an intimate concert with Tempe-based music legend Walt Richardson.
Enjoy an intimate concert with Tempe-based music legend Walt Richardson. Richardson joins us at our downtown Phoenix studios to talk about his decades-long career and his love for guitar & performing.
Problems with Closed Captions? Closed Captioning Feedback
Problems with Closed Captions? Closed Captioning Feedback
Playlist 48 is a local public television program presented by Arizona PBS

Walt Richardson
Season 1 Episode 6 | 11m 13sVideo has Closed Captions
Enjoy an intimate concert with Tempe-based music legend Walt Richardson. Richardson joins us at our downtown Phoenix studios to talk about his decades-long career and his love for guitar & performing.
Problems with Closed Captions? Closed Captioning Feedback
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Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorship♪ With your hand in mine ♪ ♪ We can walk through any space and time ♪ ♪ And leave behind ♪ ♪ This cross space with it's narrow mind ♪ ♪ We can't deny ♪ ♪ What we've been searching for for all our lives ♪ ♪ Yes, you and I ♪ ♪ With love wings we can fly ♪ ♪ We've had our share of avatars ♪ ♪ We've had our share of battle scars ♪ ♪ Not anyone man's point of view ♪ ♪ Will keep a whole word from the truth ♪ ♪ We can fly ♪ ♪ We can fly ♪ ♪ With love wings we can fly ♪ ♪ We can fly ♪ ♪ We can fly ♪ ♪ Into the clear blue open skies ♪ ♪ I wish that you could see ♪ ♪ What the world looks like to me ♪ ♪ In the end all I know ♪ ♪ Is we're reaping what we sow ♪ ♪ With your hand in mine ♪ ♪ We can walk through any space and time ♪ ♪ And leave behind ♪ ♪ The best cross space with this narrow mind ♪ ♪ We can't deny ♪ ♪ What we've been searching for for all our lives ♪ ♪ Yes, you and I ♪ ♪ With love wings we can fly ♪ ♪ We can fly ♪ ♪ We can fly ♪ ♪ With love wings we can fly ♪ ♪ We can fly ♪ ♪ We can fly ♪ ♪ Into the clear blue open skies ♪ ♪ With love wings we can fly ♪ ♪ With love wings we can fly ♪ ♪ Into the clear blue open skies ♪ ♪ With love wings we can fly ♪ ♪ With love wings ♪ ♪ Love wings ♪ ♪ Love wings we can fly ♪ ♪ With love wings ♪ ♪ Love wings into the clear blue open skies ♪ ♪ Oh, yeah ♪ ♪ With your hand in mine ♪ ♪ We can walk through any space and time ♪ ♪ And leave behind ♪ ♪ This cross space with this narrow mind ♪ - I first discovered my love of music very, very early.
My brother and I used to sit down and make sounds with our voices and get them to blend, and so that started leading me down this road of how sound vibrates and how it moves, especially between two voices.
And then later on in life, well, actually during our whole life my father sang.
And then music runs in our ancestry.
What makes a guitar special to me is early on it was a sign of revolution.
You're a rebel if you had a guitar or learned how to play.
And then, I'm dating myself now.
But as I've learned over the years, the guitar allows you to express your soul through it.
So if I have this one guitar and I put about four or five singer-songwriters and use the same guitar, it's gonna sound different in each person's hand.
And so that's what I like about how unique the instrument is in terms of allowing the creator, the songwriter to move through it.
What I love most about performing is there's a couple aspects, number one, getting up there and doing it in the first place that getting over that that initial rush there.
Then being able to get into a state of mind that you can connect with the audience and that's a little bit of, it's kind of almost like a meditative state.
And then when you've actually connected with the audience, how it all feels together, you know?
So it's about almost like three different steps in there and to achieve that is always a euphoria, a high.
'Cause you don't always get it every night.
You might get two out of the three, but you want three out of three right there, you know.
In that aspect.
The first song I played was "Love Wings" and it speaks about the science that is out there now in terms of how the heart sends out an electromagnetic signal into the field.
So I call that our love wings.
And how we're all connected through that and with it, we can fly.
This second song, (laughs) many, many, many, many, many years ago when I first started out playing, I was writing folk tunes, but they were kind of somber and everything and folks at the open mic nights were saying, "Walt, man we love your tunes, but they're downers."
And so I said, "Okay let me try to write a fast tune, "a uptempo tune."
So, "I Say Love" was my first attempt at writing a song with a rapid beat to it and it just stuck with me.
What I hope the audience will get, out of the performances is a chance to maybe forget about what they're going through and just relax in a space where we don't have any worries on our mind for a while.
And the longer we kinda stay in that place, the better we feel.
♪ Love is sweet ♪ ♪ Love is fine ♪ ♪ Turns my water into wine ♪ ♪ Heals the weak ♪ ♪ Frees the blind ♪ ♪ It flows through every space and time ♪ ♪ Now listen to me brother ♪ ♪ We've gotta love one another ♪ ♪ I say now listen to me brother ♪ ♪ We've gotta love one another ♪ ♪ Love is learning evermore ♪ ♪ And yes, this journey guides your core ♪ ♪ A friend to touch ♪ ♪ And a hand to hold ♪ ♪ Never, never leave us in the cold ♪ ♪ Listen to me brother ♪ ♪ We've gotta love one another ♪ ♪ I say now listen to me brother ♪ ♪ We've gotta love one another ♪ ♪ 'Cause I like to see you dancing beside me ♪ ♪ In the sunshine ♪ ♪ I like to see you dancing and everything is all right ♪ ♪ I like to see you dancing beside me in the sunshine ♪ ♪ I like to see you dancing and everything is alright, yes ♪ ♪ So let this be our new world goal ♪ ♪ Helping both the young and old ♪ ♪ Planting seeds and watch them grow ♪ ♪ You're always reaping what you sow ♪ ♪ Listen to me brother ♪ ♪ We've gotta love one another ♪ ♪ I say now listen to me brother ♪ ♪ We've gotta love one another ♪ ♪ 'Cause I like to see you dancing beside me ♪ ♪ In the sunshine ♪ ♪ I like to see you dancing and everything is all right ♪ ♪ I like to see you dancing so happy in the sunshine ♪ ♪ I like to see you dancing and everything is all right ♪ ♪ Everything is all right ♪ ♪ Everything is all right ♪ ♪ Everything is all right ♪ ♪ I say love ♪ ♪ I say love ♪ ♪ I say love ♪ ♪ I say love ♪ ♪ I say love ♪ ♪ What you want children ♪ ♪ I say love is what you need ♪ ♪ Now I say love ♪ ♪ Hey, what you want children ♪ ♪ I say love is what you need now ♪ ♪ When you wake up in the morning ♪ ♪ When you come home in the evening ♪ ♪ All through the night, yes ♪ ♪ It makes you feel all right ♪ ♪ It makes you feel all right ♪ ♪ It makes you feel all right ♪
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Playlist 48 is a local public television program presented by Arizona PBS