A recent discovery, and someone I shall be featuring over the coming weeks on the World's Worst Records Radio Show.
Currently living in Raleigh, North Carolina, Tom Arico is a New England musician who, tired of taking a back seat in cover bands, decided to set out in search of stardom, recording a series of EPs and his own full-length album – the Preacher – during the late 80s and into the 90s.
Currently living in Raleigh, North Carolina, Tom Arico is a New England musician who, tired of taking a back seat in cover bands, decided to set out in search of stardom, recording a series of EPs and his own full-length album – the Preacher – during the late 80s and into the 90s.
Originally from Bethel, Connecticut, his song Baby On the
Way – issued in 1989 - became a turntable hit with some college
radio stations (and especially DePaul University in Chicago), thanks to what can
only be described as his ‘unique’ performance style. Tom is a proficient rhythm
guitar player, but his odd, high-pitched nasal vocal will not be to everyone’s
taste. A quick search of the ‘net will turn up thousands of references to Tom’s
work, very few (if any) of them complimentary. Irwin Chusid is a fan: that
should be recommendation enough.
In fact, the only person who consistently praises Tom’s work
is Tom himself: his CDBaby page lauds him as ‘One of New England's finest rock
artists’. The cheeky monkey even appears to have faked a wildly ecstatic audience
going nuts during a live performance of his signature tune, The Preacher, at
a concert in Jerusalem. As one on-the-ball Amazon reviewer was quick to
point out, that same audience was equally ecstatic when they saw the Kinks perform
Lola, for Tom seems to have lifted his stadium full of fans from One
For The Road, the Kinks’ 1980 double live album.
Like many outside musicians, people question whether Tom
knows just how good – or how bad – he is. He appears to be very serious about
his work, but then you know that he has to be in on the joke when his latest
YouTube video features a cover of the very same Ray Davies song.
He’s still out there strutting his stuff today, appearing
regularly at open mic nights in and around New York State, and if you want to
hear more a 20th anniversary reissue of The Precaher is available
from CDBaby, Amazon and all good outlets.
More info on him :
ReplyDeleteAn exceptional child Tom learned to play piano at age 3, the violin at age 5, was a tap dancer at age 7, was performing classical guitar at carnegie hall an age 11 graduated college at age 13, was a neuro surgeon at at fifteen and at seventeen he was recruited by the CIA for an undercover operation in albaina.
Found here:
https://forum.dvdtalk.com/other-talk/417682-my-name-john-daker.html
Hahah! None of that would surprise me!
DeleteProbly first heard this fella on Irwin's old "Incorrect Music" show. I tried to find a copy of "Baby On The Way" back when i did in fact have a baby on the way. (Fortunately?) I couldn't' find one, so..thanks?
ReplyDeleteThank you for that glowing review of my music I look forward to hearing it on your radio show.
ReplyDeleteP.S. Tell Irwin I said hi.
Thanks for that Tom; and thanks for taking this in good sport. Best wishes to you and yours
DeleteDuring the 80's and 90's in NYC I played guitar on probably 500-1,000 demos, indie releases, band projects as a pay to play side man.
ReplyDeleteSometime around 2000, a friend of mine said that he had found a CD that I had played on. He found it at some used place outside Chicago. It was indeed the very first Tom Arico release. He mailed me a cassette copy of the CD and sure enough, I knew from the very first tune that it was me playing electric guitar on the tunes. I could also tell that it was my friend Rob on Bass. I had zero memory of this session, so I called my friend Rob and asked him about it. Little by little the memories started coming back. Tom had given us a bunch of unarranged tunes to hear and we then went through them one by one. The band spent about 30 minutes coming up with the arrangement and then we printed two copies to tape and then off to the next song.
At the time Tom did not put down any vocals, that would be done at a later time after the tunes were recorded.
I put in my day of recording, got paid in cash and went home. I never thought about it again until my friend Tony found the evidence at a used store. I remember checking out his website back in the day and he had an entire section for each studio player including me. Honestly, I thought that it was all extremely amusing. Occasionally, I do get emails asking about the album and the tunes. Apparently Tom Arico is a little like Herpes. He just keeps coming back.
Beware what you do for cash. It may haunt you forever.
Thanks for this, Scott. Really appreciated!
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