An Ohio native, Richey’s passion for music was sparked early on in her great aunt’s record shop. She took up the guitar in high school and college but it didn’t stick right away. After college, Richey worked in nature centers in Colorado and Ohio and traveled to Sweden and South America before landing in Bellingham, Washington, where she worked as a cook.
Friends talked up Nashville and convinced Richey and her partner to load up their Ford F150 and head to Music City. In Nashville, Richey cooked at the famed Bluebird Café and gigged around town before meeting Luke Lewis and Keith Stegall. At their meeting she played one song, talked a lot, and got a record deal at the musical home of Billy Ray Cyrus and Shania Twain. Her music continues to have a rule-breaking style which sets her outside contemporary country’s bounds and that is fine by Richey. Through it all, Richey has worn her heart on her lyrical sleeve. “I started writing songs because of Joni Mitchell,” Richey confesses.