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Friday, 7 February 2020

New England's Finest


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.

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. 






Follow Tom’s YouTube channel HERE



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7 comments:

  1. Bob7 February 2020 at 18:08

    More info on him :
    An 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

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  2. Mr Fab8 February 2020 at 08:01

    Probly 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?

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  3. Tom Arico13 February 2020 at 13:01

    Thank you for that glowing review of my music I look forward to hearing it on your radio show.
    P.S. Tell Irwin I said hi.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Darryl W. Bullock13 February 2020 at 13:22

      Thanks for that Tom; and thanks for taking this in good sport. Best wishes to you and yours

      Delete
  4. Scott Abene29 March 2023 at 21:37

    During 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.

    Sometime 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.

    ReplyDelete