Dr G is Rich Staats. Rich is the composer and the producer for all the music created by Dr G & the Range Shadows. One of the questions that Rich is often asked is “where did you get your formal musical training and education?” The answer is the school of hard knocks. Rich has not had any formal education or training, but he can read, and practice is the best teacher. Rich started composing in 2002 and composed, recorded, and produced around two dozen songs from 2002-05. In 2005, Rich was called away to command a battalion in combat. One of the things that kept Rich going in combat was thinking about all the ways that he was going to modify his music when he got back to his studio in the USA. Unfortunately, Rich lost a significant amount of his high end hearing. He stopped his music work for several years till his oldest son told him, “stop feeling sorry for yourself and figure out a way around the handicap.” Since then, Rich has had to rely more on visualization and on music theory to complete songs.

The Range Shadows are the collective of session musicians that Rich engages and records. Some are repeat performers and regular “go to” musicians. Others are spontaneous recordings during big music events like Mardi Gras and South by Southwest. Over the past twenty years, literally hundreds of musicians have contributed to the Dr G & the Range Shadows albums.