PR: Daniel Romano - Nov. 11 - Mod Club (SUPPORT ADDED)
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DANIEL ROMANO
WSG. STEVEN LAMBKE
(of CONSTANTINES, BABY
EAGLE)
WEDNESDAY,
NOVEMBER 11, 2015
VIRGIN MOBILE MOD CLUB - TORONTO
Doors: 7:00 PM Show: 8:00 PM
TICKETS
ON SALE WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2015 @ 10AM
Tickets available at
all Ticketmaster Outlets, Rotate This and Soundscapes.
Call Ticketmaster at 1-855-985-5000
to charge by phone
Tickets
(incl. HST) $25.00 (plus
service charges)
19+ / General Admission
A
swirling flourish of strings whirls around a noir cocktail of stately country
elegance of classic piano and brass flourishes, as a voice emerges from the
stale smoke and dim lights equally trenchant resolve and raw ache. Daniel
Romano, slightly behind the beat, offers a chivalrous promise of avengement to
the man who broke a tender heart on “I’m Gonna Teach You.”
Time
is one thing the Welland, Ontario native Daniel Romano has a slippery
relationship with. Not a retro preservationist, nor a post-modern cowpunk, the
songwriter Robert Christgau described as having “a voice that’s sometimes so
deep it serves as its own mournful echo chamber” embraces classicism and
sadness in its extremes to create something beyond nostalgia on If I’ve Only One Time Askin’. Whether
it’s the John Prine character sketchery of the miscasting romantic “Two Word
Joe,” the Laurel Canyon countrygrass – equal parts Neil Young a la Harvest and the Flying Burritos’ Gilded Palace of Sin -- of “Strange Faces,”
featuring Caitlin Rose, or the accordion’n’fiddle heartbreak waltz “If You Go
Your Way (I’ll Go Blind).”
“I’ve
been known to take some liberties in the sadness department,” Romano admits.
“Anything can be reality if you let it percolate in your brain... But you can’t
take it to a place where it has literally happened to no one. You see people,
you hear people, you know people –
and it’s all there!”
All
there, indeed. Romano, who got his start in punk bands before taking his
songcraft into waters populated by French pop, Lefty Frizzell, ‘80s country, Leonard Cohen’s grace
and Bob Dylan’s shape-shifting, casts a vast net. One to eschew labels, he
created his own: Mosey.
“Mosey music is a study in contrasts. There’s glitz and grit, reveling
and wallowing, wretchedness and showmanship. Mosey music’s pioneers wore their
battered hearts on sequined sleeves.”
Perhaps
a fear of boredom or merely the insatiable need to create, Mosey is fired by
Romano’s serious musical restlessness. Continually seeking stimulation, he can
talk about fuzz guitar solos on obscure Buck Owens records, various periods of
Lee Hazelwood’s creative output, Shel Silverstein’s books and songs, especially the 1998 Old
Dogs project written for Waylon Jennings, Mel Tillis, Bobby Bare and Jerry
Reed – fluently as it happens. That supple relationship to diverse influences
gives Romano flexibility.
“The
process is very similar to how (Country Music and Songwriters Hall of Famer)
Harlan Howard would’ve written. When you get a good line, the song is pretty
much done. At least for me. I have all these pieces of paper, and from there,
the songs write themselves.
“Every
time there’s something new, it gets thrown into the coat pocket. Hopefully it’s
an entity and not a confused pile of papers. Sometimes,” he continues,
addressing the bumps, “you sit down and there isn’t a line. That’s when the
songs are a little more ethereal. They’re less blast, but even then three lines
in, they’re onto a life of their own.”
On
the lean honky tonk “Old Fires Die,” Romano is utterly believable, confessing,
“I get more happiness from a bottle/ And get more love from a stranger...” like
a dry-mouthed Bukowski. The suitor in
the lilting title track, tries to lure a working girl from turning tricks with,
“Honey, let me kiss your pretty face, And wash away the small remaining
traces/Of every man who’s been here in my place.”
“It’s
a man being embarrassed about trying to take a prostitute away from her job.
It’s pretty real, but it’s pretty liberal, really. And it seemed like an annoying mouthful for a title. I loved that.”
Romano,
who is also a visual artist as well as an accomplished graphic designer and
skilled leather craftsman, loves the notion of vexation. Like the grain of sand
that creates the pearl, he writes daily, throws away much, comes back to some –
and is always seeing how far he can push his music.
He
is also very much seeking unlikely influences.
The lush Bakersfield lament from hardcore country writer Doodle Owens’
“Learning To Do Without Me, is proof. “It was a black sheep on [George Jones’] You’ve Still Got A Place in My Heart,
the only one that was good. It was so buried and lost on this record, because
people wouldn’t get all the way through. It felt like it needed to be
discovered again.”
Recording
at his home, Romano takes his DIY to heart. Starting with a ghost guitar and
vocal track, he tracks the drums, then bass, adds acoustic guitar – and takes a
step back. If it’s a little more time intensive, he creates exactly the texture
and tone he hears in his head.
“I’ll
sit with a print out of the lyrics and think about exactly what needs to
happen. I’ll build from there, deciding I want a fiddle on this line, or steel
on that.”
The
result is a studied piece of music with room to resonate. Each track is
sculpted to be exactly what Romano hears, they also have the handmade and human
feeling that gives records life.
“Punk
is a double edged sword,” he says of his beginnings. “It’s such an almost only
physical thing. The sheer power of the performance with something like the
Ramones’ ‘Sheena Is A Punk Rocker.’ Think about the reality of trying to
duplicate it with that ferocity?”
Romano
seeks intensity from brevity of thought. Not merely clean melodies, but
distilling the subjects. “Keeping it concise is the goal. I go through stages
of keeping it direct. Even when it’s lofty and poetic, I am trying to be
straightforward. I’d like to evoke something. The simpler it’s stated, the
harder it connects.”
Minimalism
with high velocity emotional stakes. Country, folk and pop bathed in buzzing
neon, yet created in an utterly modern construction. Major heartache, a bit of
irony, a hint of fun, it’s all part of If
I’ve Only One Time Askin’, a song cycle perfect for drowning one’s sorrows,
drinking warm beer or getting lost on a very long, lonely night.
By
the time the album’s closing “Let Me Sleep (At The End Of A Dream)” rolls
through, a lullaby for grown-ups that also serves as an elegy for the not yet
dead, it is an apt cap for the 11-song cycle. A gospel of the salvation that’s
already promised, it’s also a love song for this world and the next.
Like
Romano, who exists in many realms at once, Askin’
is an album beyond constraints. Not quite Americana, country, folk, songwriter
or pop, it is pieces of each, but ultimately the work of a singular mind. To
peer inside, all you have to do is listen.
Videos: “Braves The Atlantic” short film
“There Are Lines on my Face” | “A New Love Can Be Found” | “Time Forgot (To Change My Heart)” | “Runner” | “Chicken Bill/Stay All Night” | “3voor12 Sessie (solo)”
“There Are Lines on my Face” | “A New Love Can Be Found” | “Time Forgot (To Change My Heart)” | “Runner” | “Chicken Bill/Stay All Night” | “3voor12 Sessie (solo)”
Read the full story at UnRatedMagazine.com
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