Search - Michael Fracasso :: Red Dog Blues

Fracasso 's exploration of love and life takes him from the back of the personals section as explored in his last critically acclaimed album, Pocketful of Rain (2004) to a CD that reads like the pages of a southern Gothic. The centerpiece of this is Red White & Blue a haunting story of war that follows a soldier through the pangs of battle which leave him broken and loveless and draped in his nation s colors. Hurricane written before Katrina and Rita is a prescient piece of writing but could serve as a script for any disaster. Like a modern day Mark Twain, Fracasso approaches divisive topics with tongue and cheek; There Goes the Neighborhood offers a decidedly un-politically correct viewpoint on his neighbors that could be expanded to the relations in the Middle East or any other hot spot. The title song Red Dog Blues takes a stab at the right to die controversy and gives it a Buddhist twist and Texas Lost Highway pokes fun at the trend of beer-popping, gun-toting, Cadillac driving songs that are so popular in his home state. There are heartfelt tunes as well, inspired by his family, like Naked Fool (Stella s Song) and That is Life which take the mundane artifacts of living and hold them up in a glorious light. For his new project Fracasso wrote and performed a considerable number of the songs on piano as well as using his vintage acoustic guitars. He employs the horn section and producer/guitarist David Hamburger from the band, Beaumont La Grange plus the talented rhythm section of JJ Johnson (Charlie Sexton Band) on drums and Byron Isaacs (Ollabelle) on bass. These musicians were all brought together to create an album brimming with atmosphere of the American South.