Jax Singer-Songwriter rickoLus live from JME Studios

In a now famous — and, thanks to YouTube, now widely available — 1965 press conference, a young and insouciant Bob Dylan was asked if he considers himself more of a singer or a poet, among other earnest questions by a fawning San Francisco press corps. “Oh, I consider myself a song and dance man, y’know?” Dylan answers without skipping a beat.

It’s easy to imagine that, if asked, Jacksonville singer-songwriter Richard Colado might provide a similar answer. For more than two decades now, Colado has released more than a half-dozen albums of original material as rickoLus, while performing locally and touring both nationally and internationally at a near constant clip.

On his latest full-length, 2021’s Bones uses poetry and prose to chronicle a nostalgic suite of remembrances, most of which centers on his adolescent and young-adult years growing up in Jacksonville Beach. Influenced in part by Bruce Springsteen’s many forays into character studies and stories from the coastal Asbury Park, New Jersey, Colado says he was inspired to write about a time all but forgotten in his own beach town. “The little magic, the little blip that I experienced, all the friends and places, and just being a teenager in this weird little, dirty town — which is not like that anymore,” he says trying to unpack what was unique about Jacksonville Beach in the ’90s. “If you’re looking for it, it’s probably on the floor of Ginger’s [Place] or in the bathroom at Mango’s [Beach Bar].”

Now in his early forties, Colado has committed himself to a life of writing and performing music, and seems more and more inclined to tap into his lived experience to craft tunes capable of moving his audience, emotionally and physically.

Colado recently stopped by JME Studios, where the song-and-dance man performed “Keep Dancing” from Bones and “Exile,” a brand new tune from an upcoming full-length of new material (due out in 2023). Colado also talked to JME’s Matt Shaw about touring Europe, drawing songwriting inspiration from his hometown and living an artist life in Jacksonville. Watch the full performance and interview above.

Credits:

Host: Matthew Shaw

Audio Engineer: Matthew Shaw

Mix/Master: Glenn Michael Van Dyke

Cameras: Andrew Wiechman

Editor: Andrew Wiechman