Ray Tarantino
Chris Boone
Robert Whitfield
- Crystal Hotel & Ballroom - Al's Den |
- Saturday, December 24
- 7 p.m. |
- Free |
- 21 and over
About Ray Tarantino
"He is bald! He writes really good songs and has a great voice but he's bald!"
This is how the head of a major recording company responded to Ray's music. But Ray knew that somewhere in the word he would have found at least one person that cared more about music than hairstyle. The guy from the London based label will probably never know, but Ray was right!
Ask a man about his dream and he'll outline an imaginary scenario. Meet the same man 6 years later and ask him again. Chances are he'll just smile and play you a song, follow him and you'll see just what he had in mind. Ray Tarantino resides in Nashville (TN) and performs every night in the cities most prestigious writers' rounds, has played close to 900 shows and tours the US in a '97 Suburban with a queen size bed in the back. His music tells a story. There is a sonic image and there is a literal image. Blend them together and you have one of his tunes. There is an MTV image too, that one you can flush.
He was born in the north of Italy and grew up in the UK. Start in the middle by envisioning this: a young man earning good loot locked in a life he doesn't feel. His aristocratic family are pleased for him. Right formula, wrong result. Five o'clock in the morning and he's pushing a brand spanking BMW at 100mph through the dead of night. His eyes close, the road disappears for a handful of seconds, the silence is shredded by the metallic rage of high-velocity smash-up.
Ray Tarantino broke out of the golden cage of respectability into a state of serene recklessness after that near-death wreck on an empty motorway heading to Rome. It was dark. But the sun had to rise. What Ray had hated in himself died at the scene; the man he wanted to be walked away from it, a smile on his face. Five years and 900 shows later and we're looking at a roving singer songwriter who cashed in the numb comfort of a mechanical existence for the exhilarating knock-backs and breakthroughs of a life of spiritual fulfilment. No musical mercenary, Ray Tarantino has staked his claim on the narrow strip where the so-bloody-British immediacy of pop blends with the so-damn-American power of folk-rock. That's what he has always felt, the natural outcome of the music he's always heard.
Let's rewind to dig it all! A couple of months after the crash Ray Tarantino produced his debut album Recusant with Tony Bowers (former bass player and co-founder of Simply Red). The web is known to be the planet of meritocracy. It helped unsigned Ray kick-start his musical career with a number one placement on the MySpace UK charts, hurled up there with indie-band Gomez and major-phenomenon Amy Winehouse. A few weeks later he was signing a deal with boutique label Massive Arts and Sony Music Publishing. He got a little cash and hit the road to introduce his music across Europe. Couldn't wait! In the meantime Recusant landed on the desk of Evolution Promotion in the US (Moby, Sting, White Stripes) and was tested across the States receiving airplay from AAA radios. Ray flew across the pond and toured the US to live his life of music. He didn't make projections as he ventured into the world and fed it with all he had to offer. Ray, a travelling troubadour, living for the day in a land of forecast-inspired/exposure-driven/budget-backed cool looking music acts planning to be "next big thing". He looked for nothing but honesty and truth, leaning on storytelling and the beauty of casual exposure.
One show after the other he improved his craft, acquiring virtues that were soon to be acknowledged by the few that managed to get hold of him: he was invited to open one of Tori Amos's 2010 solo shows; his song "Senza Pelle" (recorded by Italian folk artist Patrizia Laquidara and produced by Arto Lindsay) was chosen by Howie B for a remix; his composition "Your Heart My Heart" was recorded by Delmar Brown (Sting, Miles Davis, Jaco Pastorius); his call-to-arms hit "Recusant" topped the Great American Song Contest; the lyrically inspiring "Five O'clock In The Morning" received an honorary award in the West Coast Songwriters International Competition. Ray also produced soul artist JHall's debut EP for Universal USA then got full stars on Rolling Stone producing and co-writing Italian Luca Gemma's third critically acclaimed album "Folkadelic". The press has often used precious words to describe his work, associating his poetic lyrics with the mastery of Bob Dylan and his sound with the integrity of Springsteen, U2, David Gray and Daniel Lanois. Radios that received his music jumped at the opportunity to broadcast his "no-brainers" and his country's most credible TV personality Serena Dandini had him play on her record-breaking show viewed by almost four million people.
Ray Tarantino's self-released debut album has been repackaged and will be carried on the road for promotion on his forthcoming US tour. His follow-up album Across The River will be released in 2012.
About Chris Boone
Born Christopher C. Boone in Richmond, VA, Boone began playing piano at the age of six. At the age of ten, after two years of living in Europe, his parents enrolled him in piano lessons, followed by classical piano instruction at Converse pre-college in Spartanburg, SC. In the mid-80s and early 90s, he played keyboards with rock bands and did some studio recording.
After college, Boone moved to New York, NY and performed as the front man for the punk band The Subvertables. After a short studio demo, the band broke up, and he moved to Los Angeles, CA. Shaped by influences of Bob Dylan, Paul Westerburg, Bob Mould, Vic Chestnut, and Paul Weller, he began to alter his musical interest to singer/songwriter and the guitar as the primary instrument.
Upon returning to NYC, Boone recorded his first ten-song EP, Trailer Park Friendly, and found himself billed as the opener for Jewel at the Ludlow Street Cafe for an Atlantic Records showcase. Quick to move around, he headed to San Francisco, CA for a short stint of music collaboration with local artists. Upon returning to South Carolina in 1997, he headed bands such as Teahead Joyride and The Drive, while at the same time playing coffee shops simply as boone. In 2003, he hosted a very successful three-month long series of open-mics in Ashland, OR that were digitally recorded and posted to a URL address from which artists could download a free copy of their live recording.
In 2004, Boone returned to Charleston, SC and met Phil White, music graduate from the College of Charleston and co-founder of the New Music Collective. Phil recorded and produced Boone's second ten-song EP, Partly Monday?
www.chrisboonemusic.com
www.myspace.com/chrisboonemusic- website:
- http://www.chrisboonemusic.com
