Like many artists –music became my solace and my hiding place early in my life. I was nine or so, when the local symphony came to school and gave us a demonstration of the different instruments WE could choose to play. Well, being somewhat short and tad pudgy, painfully shy among my peers (not adults – though – I figured out early that the adults KNEW stuff the kids didn’t, and a bit of an outsider (mama’s
boy, too sensitive for my own good, and interested in reading and hanging with the dog rather than sports like my brothers), -- I OF COURSE picked the TUBA! – -- NOT ONLY could I hide behind it but it was BIG and LOUD and STUCK out in a way that I couldn’t. I lugged that thing back and forth to school for years ( I actually played all through college and it was through that instrument that my friends Ken & Lisa met and married ).
At about the same time we started doing the kiddie school plays and I also got to be the NARRATOR in "Peter and the Wolf" and Santa Claus to Anna Maria Blasetti’s Mrs. Claus (both our moms could sew!) and I was hooked somehow!
BUT – one day someone let me sing a solo (I think it was at church) and people applauded – and THAT’s WHEN I KNEW I could create something that helped not only myself but those of you who are experiencing life alongside me.
Believe me, it’s taken a LIFE TIME of practice and soul searching, anger, joy, love, frustration, grief and every other emotion, feeling, experience you can imagine to get to HERE. The knowing this is how I can HELP – this is what I can SHARE – this is how I can HEAL – this is how I can INSPIRE – and mostly – this is where my Soul Thrives and my Joy Lives; on stage in front of just a few or a few thousand, in studio recording, in church feeling spirit all around, or in my living room alone – doing the work – or just singing to sing. That’s how I HEAL when I’m hurting – That’s how I SCREAM when I’m angry, That’s how I LOVE when I’m content, that’s how I GRIEVE when I’m over what “man” does to one another.
My very favorite thing of all. When I was a kid the downtown stores (there was no mall or Wal-Mart in Oneonta then – imagine that if you will) were open until nine on Thursdays and during the last of the Christmas Holiday rush, they stayed open later, too, except for Sundays.
There were lights and neon and sparkling things in windows and all my friends and town people walking up and down, having PIE at the Bresee’s food counter! I also used to go meet my Dad sometimes in the afternoon for his late day coffee and he would get me a strawberry milkshake – putting the extra in the big metal canister, too!! (because the glass wasn't big enough!) --- Ahhh! I didn't even particularly like strawberry milkshakes but it was sitting with Pop and chatting for a few minutes that made it taste terrific! For more stories about the neighborhood and the cast of characters who shaped my life – Please click Here – You’ll be glad you did, I promise.
About Me: I grew up, perhaps, not too differently, than you in a small very close-knit city in upstate New York. Though I was born, went to grade school, stayed for college, and part of my young adulthood in Oneonta, my parents came to “Merica (as we call it) from southern Italy, which did make our family a little different than some of the neighbors and kids down the street. You see, our little town was pretty magical during the time I grew up there –probably why I didn’t leave until I was in my mid 20’s and woke up most days wondering why “Nonna/Mom” was not here in the house with me! Even though we had a pretty traditional Italian immigrant upbringing. Dad worked and Mom took care of everything else – including three boys and Velven, then Romeo- the dogs, because my mom was only 19 when she came here, there was a lot of “we’re in America now" sympathies coming through, too. A big part of who I am - like every good Italian boy – was and still is shaped by this incredible lady. You’ll learn more about her in the blogs and through the music you’ll find on other pages here – and that darn book that is coming along at some point. --- do the work, Joe.
My life was filled with lots of joy and exploration from a very young age – because it was safe to let your “kids” play alone, I was going to the grocery store, over to Doloris’ (Sigh!) and Nancy’s (Sigh!) and Cumare Virginia’s (YAY!) house to visit when I was three years old. Like many of us at the time, there were three or four places Mom could call if she looked down and I wasn’t at her heels --- No panic – no call to the police (there was no 911), and no worries that I was hurt (brother Tony --- a different story on that issue --- ooo that middle child – lol). After all, I was probably just over-brushing Doloris’ long blonde hair (it was past her waist!), bugging Nancy and sister Janet (and getting bugged by her two older brothers – because having two of my own wasn’t enough!), or over petting Yellowjacket (the cat) and seeing MY Charlotte spider in the breakfast nook window seat at my Cuma's(Godmother’s).
On my walks around the block, I also delighted in seeing and speaking with the cool lady at the corner (Rosetta and Ed Hulburt), whom I told, when I was probably 5 or 6 years old, that I was going to be bigger and smarter than all those college kids on the hill! Yup --- Well --- at least one of those statements came true -- on and off over the course of my life. The other – well –if you figured it out – I would never presume to say out loud or think it. I wasn’t raised that way – Just SHOW up and KNOW you are but don’t talk about it. – Lord knows I could’ve done with some “self-horn tooting” earlier in my career, though. ☺
There was also Joe and Lula next door, who were like my grandparents (“Big Joe” and “Little Joe”), and had the most romantic secret I’ve ever known – literally the stuff of movies. Mom played a significant part in that one, too, but that’s a story for another time. One of the coolest things about Joe was that he was a master carpenter. (pictures coming soon) I used to go play in the shop (yup – big ole’ band saw with no safety equip) and pick up the “curls” of wood from the floor where he had been working with the beautiful wooden handled smoothing plane (see an example of one here) to make some kind of craft thing – or let the adults use them to start the bbq! My Dad would say, “Joe, go over next door and get some shavings.” But --- shhhhh – the super cool thing was that “Big Joe” would take me with him on his afternoon walks downtown --- to the VA! He’d have his little afternoon “snort” and I’d have a Rootbeer sitting at the bar! I always tease Mom now that if it were today – Child Protective Services would be at the door carting her off for child endangerment!
But LULA --- Oh LULA!– a REAL American Lady from olden times – She had the coolest Upstate New York voice and sense of the country about her – She smelled of lavender (I thought) and BAKED things –with a “full bosom,” as it used to be called, wore lots of floral print cotton dresses, and oh my could she make Strawberry Rhubarb Pie (from the garden!). She used to call me in from the yard (no fences across neighbors in those days) and give me Foti’s Italian bread with butter and homemade strawberry jam. I just adored her! But – You best not disturb her when her “programs” were on- "Secret Storm," "Search for Tomorrow," and the "Edge of Night" (all of which I loved, too!).
Read about the Love of a Lifetime between Joe and Lula, plus more Tales from the Backyard, here
Read more about Doloris and her long blonde hair (like Rapunzel), here.
Read more about Nancy – Cumare Viriginia – Cupare Albert and the Birch Street Stories, here.
Read more about Mom and Dad’s love story and more, here.