Monday Morning Maniac Music with Rich Pagano

Check out Richie's new album, featuring Trey Anastasio, Ian Hunter, Fab Faux keyboardist Jack Petruzzelli who is one of the TL personal favorites along with Jeff Kazee. See Rich Pagano's cool online site for many other reviews.

See part of the recent review in Hi-Fidelity:

Pagano's backing musos, the "sugarCane cups," are an all-star collection of the best and the brightest that NYC has to offer, with guitarists Andy York, Steve Conte, and Jack Petruzzelli, along with keyboardist Jeff Kazee shouldering the heavy loads, while various name-brand talents like Trey Anastasio, Ian Hunter, Willie Nile, and David Johansen drop by to lend a hand. Recorded in bits-and-pieces over the course of a year, Pagano used whatever friendly collaborators that he could rope into a session, but the results are surprisingly uniform, with the obviously inspired participants leaving behind some good work when they walked out the door.

As a result, Rich Pagano + the sugarCane cups is an album that looks forward towards the future while gazing longingly towards the past. Pagano's rough-hewn vocals are a welcome throwback to the pre-Pro Tools era, glorying in their warm authenticity and sometimes ragged emotion, while his percussion work sits comfortably behind his fellow players, rising now and then in the mix to add an invigorating blast of energy.