Marty Duda's artist of the week: Richmond Fontaine

Inspired by the country-punk sounds of 80s bands like The Blasters, Green On Red and The Long Ryders, Willy Vlautin formed Richmond Fontaine in 1994 after moving to Portland, Oregon. Often compared to fellow alt.country rockers Son Volt, Richmond Fontaine have released 10 studio albums between 1996 and 2011 full of the yearning literate songs of Vlautin. Willy Vlautin is also a novelist and short story author and his songs are full of world-weary characters who also sometime show up in his books. Willy's latest project, The Delines features vocalist Amy Boone along with members of The Decemberists and Richmond Fontaine. Their album, Colfax Avenue, has just been released and they are set to perform at Auckland's Tuning Fork this Friday as part of their month-long Americana Festival.