There are few writers who have been able to transcend the labels of prose, poetry and storytelling to create a synthesized artform unique to the literary world. Three come to mind: Charles Bukowski, William Burroughs and Rich Ferguson.
The commonalities run deep not surface or perfunctory; the tracking of the seedy human minutiae of existence, the private hell of the greasy pop proletarian, the blurring of the paradoxes of benevolent versus malevolent and the sacred versus the profane, all the while using an interdimensional language bridging the chasm of star-crossed lovers and dysfunctional shysters. Rich Ferguson conveys the pimply win/lose truth of Buk in the high-minded junkie Burroughs way of expressing.
Wailing from New Jersey, bombing San Francisco in the late 80s and then emerging on the Los Angeles ONYX Spoken Word scene in the 90s as one of the originalNeo-Beat "Idyllic Nihilists," Rich Ferguson holds the eternal soul of angels within the black leather pouch of personal demons. He willingly inhabits and recounts a world of sad violent teenagers doing donuts in muscle cars; of Mother Mary and "the ashes that are her eyes"; of strip club kidnappers; of personal sin inventories and a planet devoid of dogs; of urban decay and the fertility of modern charade; of humans treading water in a bright polluted sea.
As a spoken word performer and musician, Rich Ferguson is unparalleled, leaving Buk and Burroughs in the dust; shapeshifting, teleporting and otherworldly-agile, contorting and twisting Christ-like, crying eyes rolling back for an intense salvation, lipstick-smeared wedding dress-wearing ghoul ranting perfect sense into an otherwise clogged filter.
Rich Ferguson is a rarified artist leaving no telescoping stone unturned.
Milo Martin
Rich Ferguson is a poet with a sound, not the scratch of pencil on paper or the tick of fingertips on plastic, but the sonification of syllables warm and rubbing up against trip hop beat and street atmosphere. Imagine Kerouac kissing Massive Attack with a side order of Swordfish Trombone. All this and more can be heard on Rich’s latest CD, Where I Come From, produced by Herb Graham, Jr (John Cale) with Jeremy Toback (Brad) on bass and Butch (Eels) on drums.
The commonalities run deep not surface or perfunctory; the tracking of the seedy human minutiae of existence, the private hell of the greasy pop proletarian, the blurring of the paradoxes of benevolent versus malevolent and the sacred versus the profane, all the while using an interdimensional language bridging the chasm of star-crossed lovers and dysfunctional shysters. Rich Ferguson conveys the pimply win/lose truth of Buk in the high-minded junkie Burroughs way of expressing.
Wailing from New Jersey, bombing San Francisco in the late 80s and then emerging on the Los Angeles ONYX Spoken Word scene in the 90s as one of the originalNeo-Beat "Idyllic Nihilists," Rich Ferguson holds the eternal soul of angels within the black leather pouch of personal demons. He willingly inhabits and recounts a world of sad violent teenagers doing donuts in muscle cars; of Mother Mary and "the ashes that are her eyes"; of strip club kidnappers; of personal sin inventories and a planet devoid of dogs; of urban decay and the fertility of modern charade; of humans treading water in a bright polluted sea.
As a spoken word performer and musician, Rich Ferguson is unparalleled, leaving Buk and Burroughs in the dust; shapeshifting, teleporting and otherworldly-agile, contorting and twisting Christ-like, crying eyes rolling back for an intense salvation, lipstick-smeared wedding dress-wearing ghoul ranting perfect sense into an otherwise clogged filter.
Rich Ferguson is a rarified artist leaving no telescoping stone unturned.
Milo Martin
Rich Ferguson is a poet with a sound, not the scratch of pencil on paper or the tick of fingertips on plastic, but the sonification of syllables warm and rubbing up against trip hop beat and street atmosphere. Imagine Kerouac kissing Massive Attack with a side order of Swordfish Trombone. All this and more can be heard on Rich’s latest CD, Where I Come From, produced by Herb Graham, Jr (John Cale) with Jeremy Toback (Brad) on bass and Butch (Eels) on drums.
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