Las Vegas alt-singer/songwriter Michael Richter’s confessional storytelling and explosive live performances could be called anything but dishonest — some things can’t be faked. Though he grew up in a musical family (Richter’s grandfather played guitar for outlaw country legend Waylon Jennings), it wasn’t until his mother was murdered in 2014 that he turned to songwriting. “It was this weird thing where she instilled music into me, and she’s gone, and I gotta do it now,” Richter says. The loss is chronicled in his song “2014,” one of over thirteen soul-baring songs performed to a captive audience on Richter’s powerful debut album, Live at 11th Street (recorded in a solo/acoustic setting at Downtown Las Vegas’s 11th Street Records). Since he began performing in 2018, Richter has built a large, supportive community of friends and fans (you can see many of them on the cover of Live at 11th Street). He has performed at Mix 94.1’s Spring Fling in The Theater at Virgin Hotels, where he opened for Jason Mraz and Dean Lewis, and recently headlined the Boulder City Block Party with his band.