Michael Fracasso at CSPS

MICHAEL FRACASSO

Michael Fracasso is revered for a "high and lonesome" tenor voice that has earned comparisons to Gene Pitney, Roy Orbison and Don Everly. With songwriting skills just as distinctive, it's no wonder that the Washington Post put his songs on a par with those of Boudleaux Bryant, author of the Everly Brothers biggest hits. Fracasso has flirted ingeniously with pop, rock, folk, country and blues, revealing a capacity for simultaneous excursions into the wry and forlorn, the ephemeral and urgent.

All point to Fracasso's uniquely American odyssey. A native of the mill town of Mingo Junction, Ohio (where The Deer Hunter was filmed), Fracasso was educated in Catholic schools and reared in a hardscrabble neighborhood of working-class Polish, Irish and Italian immigrants. Like his father and grandfather, Michael worked in the steel mills throughout his late teens and early 20s. An uncle had bought him a guitar in grade school, thereby introducing the boy to his destiny. It was not until a high school French teacher forced Michael to fill up the extra time in a school assembly with an impromptu singing performance that the boy confronted a bona fide audience. He received his first standing ovation that afternoon.

After graduating from Ohio State and working the Washington's Cascade Mountains as a surveyor, Fracasso took a deep breath and relocated to New York City. For the next 12 years, Fracasso honed his chops in the city's burgeoning folk scene. He became a regular at the Monday-night Cornelia Street Songwriter Exchange (and had several songs chosen for a recorded compilation from the club), song swapping with the likes of The Roches, Steve Forbert, Suzanne Vega and Cliff Eberhardt.

Fracasso credits New York's creative hothouse for sharpening his style and his songwriting self-discipline. While in the city, he formed his first of several bands and recorded a succession of demo tapes. But by 1990, Fracasso's impatience with the progress of his career was augmented by the realization that the New York folk scene was rapidly drying up. For the second time, Michael Fracasso packed up and drove to a music town where he did not know a soul: Austin, Texas.

Thus rooted, Michael Fracasso set out to conquer the Austin music scene. Taking advantage of the city's multitude of open-mike opportunities, he quickly became a regular at the Chicago House, Cactus Cafe, Saxon Pub and the Austin Outhouse.

A year later, Fracasso was voted Best New Artist in the Music City Texas poll of local music professionals. The following year, 1992, his first release, Love and Trust, saw Fracasso break through in Texas and beyond.
He was invited to join 1994's much heralded "Austin Songwriters On The Road" tour with Jimmy Lafave, David Halley and Jo Carol Pierce. He was also highlighted, alongside Joe Ely, Hal Ketchum, and Willie, Waylon & Lyle when the Americana Network broadcast a four-hour special on the Austin music scene.

Fracasso's seventh and latest CD, Red Dog Blues, is a travelogue of sorts through the American South led by the war ballad "Red White and Blue" and the prophetically chilling "Hurricane," written before Katrina.

Wed Nov 19 | 8 pm
CSPS | 1103 Third St SE | Cedar Rapids
$12 advance | $15 day of show

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