Concert Recap: Bill Ricchini of Summer Fiction!

Jul 30, 2020 by George

With our 2020 Arts in the Park postponed to 2021 due to COVID, we’re wistfully looking back at 2019… Bill Ricchini of Summer Fiction performed on September 7:

As an audience-in-the-making wound its way towards prime viewing locations and settled into a wide variety of portable seating, lounging and picnic dining options, the historic stage area of Glen Providence Park graced them with its serene, sultry, late summer best – an environment that proved to be the perfect setting for the smooth, heartfelt musical stylings of Bill Ricchini of Summer Fiction.

Mr. Ricchini, solo, with his acoustic guitar, delivered a list of original tunes, among them his hits Dirty Blonde, Passion, and Higher Than Heaven with a spare simplicity that served to highlight his signature lyrical intensity. He prefaced each song with a behind-the-scenes glimpse into his inspiration, and, in one interlude, introduced family members who took this opportunity to catch him in this rare local performance.

Bill closed the performance with Tell Me Once, a gently introspective musing that offered a fitting close to the 8th season of concerts produced by the Friends of Glen Providence Park.

♦

Editor’s note: Check out a wonderful video of his performance of Kids in Catalina posted on Facebook by audience member Carol Tendall Carmon!

Many thanks to all who made this concert possible: Delaware County Parks & Recreation; a grant from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts; Concert Series Sponsors Media Recreation Board, West End Flats, and Media Open Streets; Concert Sponsor Diego’s Cantina; our volunteer Concert Committee; Marcia Tate for her artful decoration of the stage; and of course Bill Ricchini!

Our 2019 Arts in the Park was made possible by funding from Project Stream, a grant initiative of the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts that is regionally administered by the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance.