Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
Former Colfax High School athlete Kyle Johnson now performs with guitar as Kyle Richard. He will perform at this week's Palouse Empire Fair.
Kyle Johnson pushed the ball up the floor for Coach Reece Jenkin as a starting guard for Colfax High School on the 2012 2B state championship basketball team. He then played a year for Spokane Community College and earned a business management degree from Whitworth.
Now he works a different kind of stage as a singer/songwriter, under the name of Kyle Richard, a folk-pop act, a guy with an acoustic guitar and a loop pedal.
Richard is Johnson's middle name.
He has played around Spokane/Coeur d'Alene for the past year and a half, after his first performance in Chelan, and his first paid one in January 2018. Now he's done more than 100 shows and has 50 songs of his own.
A particular past exhibit may have set it all in motion.
In the spring of 2012, in a memorable turn of Mr. Bulldog at the Colfax High School auditorium, Johnson walked out, dressed as Lady Gaga and took to a piano to sing "Born This Way."
"People didn't know much about me and music," he said. "I was kind of shy about music in high school."
"Place I Used to Know"
At the fair, Johnson expects to play eight to 10 original songs and covers such as John Mayer's "Slow Dancing in a Burning Room" and Alicia Keys "If I Ain't Got You."
The loop pedal is a device used by Ed Sheeran and others which allows a musician to create multiple layers to their live music.
"You can basically be a one-band that way," Johnson said.
One of his own songs is about Colfax, titled "Place I Used to Know."
He will try out for American Idol Sept. 8.
Johnson, 26, is working on a self-produced album he hopes to finish by the end of September, no title yet. Once finished, he will sell megabyte sticks of the music at shows, or possibly give them away.
Then he may move to Nashville or Los Angeles.
"I'm very confident, if I keep working at it," he said.
Does he have a day job?
"This is all I do," Johnson said.
He learns by ear.
Playing guitar since he was six years old, he played in Mike Morgan's jazz band at Jennings Elementary and Colfax High School until his junior year, when he stopped to concentrate on sports – basketball and golf.
"I definitely spent more time on basketball than music growing up," he said.
Last year on Halloween in Spokane, something solidified. Spotify was playing at the house he shares with three guys from the Colfax class of 2012, and Johnson had his guitar out.
"I realized I could figure out every song as it played. How to play along," Johnson said.
He will play Friday at the fair, Sept. 6.
What's the difference between delivering a big show on guitar and loop pedal or a big game for Reece Jenkin?
"Definitely playing for Reece is more scary," Johnson said.
Garth Meyer is a former Whitman County Gazette reporter.
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