Well, if you really want to know...
I'm Richard Rosenblatt, sometimes AKA Rosy. Some of you know me from Tone-Cool Records — more on that later...
I started out as a harmonica player in the great Boston blues scene of the early 1970's, toured the East Coast as a member of the Allston Allstars, the Billy Colwell Band, T. Blade & the Esquires, and the 11th Hour Band. I was also lucky enough to record with Sunnyland Slim and back up Hubert Sumlin, John Lee Hooker, Luther "Georgia Boy Shakey Snake" Johnson, Otis Rush and others during that wild time.
I set up a basement recording studio, and started Tone-Cool Records in 1985. I spent the next 20 years as Prez and/or CEO of Tone-Cool, released more than 50 records, and got to work with some amazing artists, including Susan Tedeschi, North Mississippi Allstars, Double Trouble, Sean Costello, Hubert Sumlin, Alvin Youngblood Hart, Paul Rishell & Annie Raines, Rod Piazza & the Mighty Flyers, Bernard Allison, Monster Mike Welch, Mark Hummel, Tony Z, David Maxwell, Johnny Hoy, the Love Dogs, Toni Lynn Washington, John Brim, Rick Holmstrom, the Fabulous Thunderbirds, and many more. Lots of W.C. Handy Awards, Grammy Nominations, a "Keeping the Blues Alive" award, a Gold Record... all good.
During that time I also served 6 years on the Board of Directors of the Blues Foundation, made some great friends and ate a lot of Memphis BBQ. In 2004, due to the changing realities of the independent record biz, Tone-Cool became a division of V2-Artemis Records, and I stayed on as Prez until Spring of 2006.
I'm still playing harmonica — you can hear me on lots of Tone-Cool records, as well as a few Luther "Guitar Junior" Johnson CDs and the occasional album track, commercial or soundtrack, and recently I've done some great gigs with Hubert Sumlin, Bob Margolin (see the Memphis video here!), and Alizon Lissance. And I've been having a ball as a full-fledged member of erstwhile J Geils Band bassist D.K.'s band, Danny Klein's Full House. (See the Cool-Tone Music page for gig calendar.) Other than that, I've been working with a few artists, producing, recording, writing songs, and plotting some brand new empire-building. It's all good...
Newest venture is the VizzTone Label Group, which I launched in 2007 in partnership with blues musician Bob Margolin and publishing magnate Chip Eagle. We're working with Redeye Distribution to establish a "non-traditional" structure for releasing records and marketing music, and so far I think we're off to a great start. I'm proud to say our current releases now include Bob Margolin, Pinetop Perkins (CD/DVD), Dave Gross, Gina Sicilia, Son Seals (DVD) and Monster Mike Welch! Stay tuned for more details...
I still live in the Boston area with my wife Mary, our son Max (whenever he's home from college), and two small but mighty terriers.
