SONG PREMIERE: Love Tractor Co-Founder Mike Richmond Marries Power Pop and Alt-Country on Infectious “How Many More Times” Off Solo Debut ‘Without an Audience’

Mike Richmond has spent decades embedded in the rich musical mythology of Athens, Georgia, though he’s never seemed particularly interested in mythology itself. Best known as a founding member of the jangly underground trailblazers Love Tractor, Richmond helped shape the city’s fiercely independent scene alongside peers like The B-52s, Pylon, and R.E.M.. But on Without an Audience — his first album released under his own name — Richmond steps out of the shadows with a record that feels less like a debut than the long-overdue document of an artist who never stopped creating.

There’s a tension between performance and introspection runs throughout Without an Audience, which is out June 12th on New West subsidiary Strolling Bones Records (PRE-ORDER). Richmond balances humor with hard-earned reflection, folding together country, folk, blues, and early rock & roll into songs that wrestle with aging, obscurity, and the strange compulsion to keep making art regardless of who may be listening. During the album’s creation, Richmond found himself questioning the point of continuing at all. After all, he jokes, he was “an old guy from an obscure band from the ’80s.” But artists like William Blake, Vincent van Gogh, and Nick Drake became unlikely spiritual companions — creators who pursued their work with little promise of recognition.

For Richmond, the road to this record stretches back to the formative years of Athens’ alternative boom. He co-founded Love Tractor in 1980, initially playing guitar before moving into a frontman role as the band became one of the city’s defining underground exports. Though the group built a loyal following and toured nationally — including dates supporting The B-52s during the massive Cosmic Thing era — Richmond eventually stepped away from life on the road. The endless cycle of highways, hotel rooms, and late-night gigs simply wasn’t sustainable for him. He returned to Athens, studied art history at the University of Georgia, and settled into a quieter life while continuing to write and record music on his own terms.

That solitude ultimately became the foundation for Without an Audience. During the isolation of 2020, Richmond spent countless hours at home with a new guitar, writing songs obsessively while recovering from COVID. An earlier collection titled Plague Life was eventually shelved, but the creative momentum remained. The breakthrough came while learning Bob Dylan’s “Blind Willie McTell,” specifically the line, “The stars above the barren trees were his only audience.” Richmond suddenly understood that the act of creation itself — not applause, validation, or commercial success — was the reward.

The album also doubles as a testament to the enduring musical community of Athens itself. Richmond tracked the songs at Japanski Studios with producer Matt Tamisin before bringing in a cast of longtime collaborators and local heavyweights, including drummer Joe Rowe of The Glands, bassist David Barbe, pedal steel player John Neff of Drive-By Truckers and Japancakes, and fiddler Adam Poulin. Richmond deliberately gave the musicians freedom to invent their own parts, allowing the arrangements to evolve organically and unpredictably.

Today, Glide is offering an exclusive premiere of the standout track “How Many More Times,” which captures Richmond’s ability to fuse power pop, folk, Americana, alt-country and indie rock all together into a single song. Love Tractor has always been a criminally underrated band, and this song is a reminder of Richmond’s savvy approach to crafting songs that deliver just the right amount of groove and edge. Between the almost haunting, echo-laden vocals and guitar playing that seems to creep along in sneaky, mischievous fashion, there is a catchy quality to the song. For Richmond, it feels like both a refreshing return to form and the start of something entirely new, reminding us, in the process, just how strong a songwriter and artist he truly is.

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