Rich Creamy Paint

Dip into Rich Creamy Paint — you’ll come out feeling fine. Warm and fuzzy, yet breezy cool. Fond of the past, positive toward the future, and pretty darned pleased with the here and now. Rich Creamy Paint is a band and a boy, basically. Named after Rich Painter, it’s an intriguingly vivid shade of rock — clear, bright, blissed-out, and unpretentious. Rich Painter is someone who’s not trying to be anyone he’s not (even if, given his age, he’s still figuring out who he is). “I’m a real honest guy,” Rich says. “This album is my life up to this point.”

Now 19, Rich has lived the life of a typical teen — with a twist or two. Like a songwriting knack natural as grass growing, it just happens, and has since Rich was around 11. He’d do these shows at school in Jacksonville, FL. He’d make these albums (OK, tapes, but eventually CDs), playing all the instruments; he’d give them to friends, crushes, and his Uncle John in Nashville, a musician himself.

Uncle John (that’s John Painter, half of the offbeat duo Fleming and John and a multi-instrumentalist/producer who’s worked with Sixpence None the Richer and Ben Folds Five) was impressed enough to start mentoring Rich. The songs that just happened happened more frequently, more fluently: They happened better. So much better, they turned into Rich’s debut. “The sessions we did at John’s house were good,” Rich says. “I went back and sang some vocals again but we kept all the other stuff.”

Earnest adolescent emotion conveyed with pure, simple charm — that’s the proverbial nutshell on Rich Creamy Paint. The crunchy-sweet rumble of “Telephone Number,” the guitar squawk and spark of “Hangin’ Out,” the clock-tick drumming of head-bopper “A.D.D.,” the chiming “High School,” and the joyous light-touch harmony of “You Make Me Laugh” fulfill the promise of immediacy, sparkle, and innocence the song titles suggest. (What’s in Rich Painter’s record collection? If you guessed Matthew Sweet, Ben Folds, Weezer, and Built to Spill, you guessed right!)

Record done, Rich put together a band of young people not unlike himself. There’s 17-year-old drummer Miles McPherson, son of a top Nashville session cat. And the combo’s keyboardist Mindy Woolson, bassist Matt Mobley, and second guitarist Jesse Palmer are all Rich’s friends from Nashville’s Belmont University, famed for its music program. “I wanted more professional musicians but I didn’t want a bunch of dorky older guys,” Rich explains, adding, “They’re all trained in music, but I always play by ear.” Cool, because book-learned or not, “play” is the operative word when it comes to Rich Creamy Paint. Which is, after all, the whole point. “I want to be a positive influence, take your mind off the negative,” he offers. “I want people to get happy.”

Color your world with Rich Creamy Paint.