Press Quotes

Here’s what they’ve been saying about Raiford Starke:

"This is the kind of music you’d expect to hear as you drive into the crushed oyster shell parking lot of a cypress wood bayou roadhouse, or a coastal sailor’s dive turned biker bar. It’s good, old-fashioned homemade music, worn at the seams and wearing the tattoo of experience prominently on its shoulder. "Speak Me," the lead track of the disc, is street slang for "talk to me" and is used as the conceit in a surprisingly spiritual and compassionate song about the importance of saying what’s in your heart to the people close to you while you still have the time. It has a musical similarity at times to Marshall Tucker, but it is also the perfect introduction to the deep baritone of Raiford Starke that sounds like a combination of Townes Van Zandt, Kris Kristofferson, and Tony Joe White." - Rockzilla Magazine

"A brainy guy in a cowboy hat who plays hard rock, soft love songs, ballads, blues, white gospel, black gospel, medium-weight metal and all sorts of other music. And yet he’s not a moody, egomaniacal, self-absorbed exhibitionist. He’s not even a pampered super star, although there are fans who would follow him almost anywhere." - Naples News

"Never know what to expect from Raiford Starke, but rest assured that it won’t be fluffy stuff. Whether the singer-guitarist is blasting electric blues with a full band or sittin’ on a stool with his acoustic on his knee, Starke’s Southern swamp-boogie always confirms a raw but considerable talent. The bearded, wisecracking, down-home Virginia/Texas transplant recently opened shows for Junior Brown and handily bested him at his own country-rock game. The last of the South Florida singing cowboys? Take a good look, for we aren’t likely to see his kind again." - New Times

The New York Times took note in their Travel section while reviewing a Florida venue:

"One local favorite heard warbling a jaunty country punk drinking song mysteriously calls himself Raiford Starke, the names of two Florida towns where there are prisons."

New Times named Raiford Starke "Best Acoustic Performer" one year because he:

"...has injected the otherwise touchy-feely local acoustic scene with jagged, rawboned blasts of accomplished pickin’, singin’, and harp-blowin’. Sure, Starke plays a mean electric guitar, but it’s as a solo acoustic act that the thickly bearded, soft-spoken troubadour really shines."

"Raiford Starke is a new name to me even if as his bio says he was a tourist attraction as a child, with a birthmark in the image of the Virgin Mary. Today, his excellent voice and playing can make him a major attraction again." - Rambles Magazine

Feature article: "Starke Quality", New Times, 3/9/2000