Cliff Ritchey - Press Page

Cliff Ritchey gathers his songwriting inspiration from the simple country life he surrounds himself with in Markleville, Indiana. His desire is to connect with people on a deeper, more vulnerable level through his music. Cliff's writing career took off in 1999 as a rock & roll front man for the band AMDrive. His band was awarded the opportunity to be part of the American Music Awards Competition as one of the Top Ten Unsigned Bands featuring his song "Better Off Just Me”. Since then, Cliff’s musical journey has taken many exciting turns. In 2004 he released his first solo album This Is Front, followed by All Kidding Aside (2006), Seasons (2013) and most recently, The Second Half (2017) featuring the song "Honey Baby” which won 1st place in the Chris Austin Songwriting Competition (featured judges Andrew Marlin, Rodney Crowell, & Johnny Williams) and 3rd place in the International Songwriting Competition (featured judges included Tom Waits, Lorde, Ziggy Marley & and others). Most recently his song “Song for Indiana” was a semi-finalist in the 2021 International Songwriting Competition. Stylistically Cliff's songwriting ranges from acoustic heartfelt Americana/Folk tunes to songs with complex progressions and melodies that fit tightly inside a simple acoustic production. The Second Half is steeped in organic American musical greats like Johnny Cash and Ryan Adams, as well as one of Canada's finest exports, Ron Sexsmith. Cliff has also served as a touring guitarist for Jon McLaughlin, Josh Kaufman (winner of The Voice Season 6) and Latin recording artist Jaci Velasquez in addition to raising a family and maintaining a busy schedule as a commercial photographer.