When you meet this lanky young man from Hurley, Mississippi, you’ll first notice that he is, exactly as he describes in one of his first original songs, "as country as they come".He has opened for Hank Williams, Jr., Tracy Lawrence, Sawyer Brown, Kenny Chesney, Toby Keith, Trace Adkins, and Charlie Daniels, Montgomery Gentry, Chad Brock, Kentucky Headhunters, Neal McCoy, Joe Diffie, Tanya Tucker, Dan Seal and many others.Influenced by a lifetime of listening to the classic artists (Merle Haggard, Randy Travis, Alan Jackson, Ronnie Milsap, George Jones- no relation), Richie’s deep rich voice and marketability earned him the honor of "The Best in Mississippi" at the True Value Country Showdown in 1999. Richie ultimately won the Regional competition in Kentucky, and represented the South in the National finals on the stage of the Grand Ole Opry.Although he didn’t carry home the top spot, his success caught the attention of many local radio stations. Because many stations broadcast via the web, requests began pouring in from all over the world requesting the CD.
In 2004 Richie was asked to audition along with 12,000 other country music hopefuls to participate in the 2nd season of Nashville Star. The season premiere of Nashville Star 2 aired nationally on USA Network. Richie was one of 20 semi-finalist from across the nation selected from almost 12,000 auditions. Though Richie’s TV time lasted a grand total of 56 seconds, he caught the eye of several major record labels. Richie began negotiations with several labels by the time the NS2 was half way into broadcast. In July of 2004 Richie finally had his dreams realized when he signed a major recording contract with Dreamworks-Nashville. A merger between labels eventually placed Richie as a feature artist with MCA records. Work is underway on his debut album to be released in 2007.Richie has been writing songs in Nashville periodically with some of the biggest names in country music a part of his publishing contract with Universal publishing.
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