Biography

Philadelphia born singer-songwriter, Bill Ricchini (who also records as Summer Fiction) rose to notoriety in the early 2000’s marrying the home-spun melodicism of Elliott Smith with the arrangement sense and pop grandeur of the Beach Boys. He recorded the low-fi/chamber pop classic Ordinary Time that year to critical acclaim from Salon, Magnet and Rolling Stone as an unsigned artist before eventually signing with Sony imprint Transdreamer in 2002. "This is a summer record about the winter," Ricchini wrote in the album's liner notes. Ordinary Time, the Catholic Church's term for calendar days that do not fit into the Advent or Lent seasons, manages to balance its arrangements, string and horn orchestration, and affection for '60s California pop with the intimacy of the singer/songwriter and folk forms. Tonight I Burn Brightly followed in 2005 after Ricchini moved to New York. The album was recorded with producer Bryce Goggin and features Luna’s Lee Wall on drums, Royston Langdon on bass and a young BC Camplight on piano. The beautifully chilly, melancholy record spawned the hit “A Cold Wind Will Blow Through Your Door” which was featured on the TV show Grey’s Anatomy.