Search - Salvatore Gambardella, Dusty Micale :: Ungrateful Heart

Often typecast as, in Harry Dean Stanton's words, "mean-dogs, psychos and drifters," what's an unsung character actor to do? If you're The Sopranos' Dominic "Uncle Junior" Chianese, you take an unlikely tip from ol' H.D. himself, open up your heart and just plain sing. While the actor/singer canon is often too easily characterized as Shatneresque, stage and screen veteran Chianese has tapped into something considerably richer than mere musical ego on this collection. Inspired by the songs his Neopolitan grandfather Domenico sang him as a boy, the Bronx native expands the theme of his notable Sopranos third-season finale, "Core'n Grato," (which translates as "Ungrateful Heart"), interweaving the expected standards ("O Sole Mio," a vocal version of Rota's Godfather theme, "Torna Surriento") with the less familiar songs of longing and betrayal--essentially the Neopolitan version of the blues--that are the album's real thematic grist. Dominic is no Tony Bennett, and he knows it. But his sweetly plaintive renditions (augmented by his own acoustic guitar and evocative whistling and underscored by the spare, sympathetic arrangements of producer Nick Addeo) come straight from the heart, a place practiced chops often overlook. His own bright, buoyant composition, "Song A Napoletano," closes out the collection with a line that sums up this corner of Chianese's soul: "If I don't sing, I die!" --Jerry McCulley