Democrat & Chronicle, Aug. 7, 2007; City, Aug. 1, 2007; Rochester Insider, July 11, 2008; Steppin' Out, Stayin' In, July 17, 2008; City, Dec. 24, 2008.
[Copyright 2010 Kathleen Gill]
Sure, playing on that huge stage as a warm-up act for last weekend's Rochester Music Fest was cool. But for memorable nights, Lauren Faggiano instead chooses this past St. Patrick's Day.
"We were all crammed in a little, tiny window in the front of Beale Street," says the lead singer of The Deep Blue Dream. "It was the first time we had our sax player with us, the first time the public saw us complete."
Your next chance is Saturday when The Deep Blue Dream celebrates the release of its debut, self-titled album, again at Beale Street Cafe. Maybe they can open the windows this time, so drummer John Paul Nawn can have a little elbow room.
A 27-year-old music therapist at Heritage Christian Services, Faggiano leads The Deep Blue Dream with a big, bawdy voice. Most of the album's songs are originals, written by her, Nawn (he contributes a reggae food tribute), bassist Ken Schumacher or guitarist Alex Lasher, who helped complete the band by bringing in his life, Faith Lasher, on sax.
But on a couple of songs she didn't write is where Faggiano's voice really hits. There's "Hoochie Mama," by her dad. Vince Faggiano, himself a rocker a decade ago as the lead singer of Lightning, a band of cops who played anti-drug functions. And "Big Fat Daddy," in which she sings the praises of making love to a plus-sized fellow.
"I heard it from a woman out in Kansas City," Faggiano says. "She let me sit in on her set while I was there for a music-therapy conference." The song dates back to the '20s, reworked by bluesmen until a blueswoman, Irene Reid, got ahold of it and turned the gender on the guys.
Like her bandmates, Faggiano is new to the blues. "I've been writting songs since high school," she says. "I was obsessed with Tori in high school, Tori Amos. Then Joni Mitchell, Bonnie Raitt, Susan Tedeschi. I still write in that style, sometimes."
And it's a long way off from the purpose of music therapy, as Faggiano applies it to developmentally disabled adults.
"It's a a question of Eastern and Western music," she says, reaching for a comparison. "What could be atonal to a Western ear is beautiful to an Eastern ear. Somebody screaming could be really hurtful to somebody's ear, but to me, that's what they need to do."
For more on the band, check www.myspace.com/thedeepbluedream.
Rochester City Rib Fest
Charlotte Beach
Sat., May 29, 2010
3 p.m
The Keg
(Downstairs from the German House)
Rochester, N.Y.
Sat., May 29, 2010
8 p.m.
Shamrock Jacks
Rochester, N.Y.
Sat., June 5, 2010
9:30 p.m.