Reckoning by Andrew Justin Nicoletta

Nicoletta has been writing lyrics, stories and poems all his life, but the songs that make up Reckoning began coming together in a creative fervor about two years ago. “I decided to risk everything and make a record.” Working 18 to 20 hours a day, seven days a week, both in the studio and at his day job, Nicoletta hooked up with producer Steve Rizzo (Cheryl Wheeler, Kristin Hirsch, Belly, Duke Robillard) and began putting together the songs for Reckoning.

“Steve is a perfectionist,” Nicoletta says. “If something wasn’t right, he’d make me do it again. It was my first time in a studio and I learned how to record as we worked together. I play all the guitar parts, he did the drums, bass, percussion and most of the keyboards.” Reckoning took a year to make, and you can hear the effort in the sharp production that gives every track its own individual character.

Reckoning is deeply personal, a record that faces life’s often difficult realities without flinching or falling back on false optimism. Nicoletta’s well-constructed, multi-level guitar parts, emotive singing and superior songwriting find a perfect compliment in Steve Rizzo’s organic production technique, creating an album that’s as complex and universal as life itself.

Andrew Justin Nicoletta was born on January 20, 1973 in Suffern, New York and raised in Mahwah, New Jersey and Manhattan. “I always wanted to play guitar and write songs,” Nicoletta recalls. “But being an artist in my family was like going to the moon. It wasn’t an option.” Nicoletta’s dad was not a musician, but a huge music fan and exposed him the Stones, Beatles, Marvin Gaye, The Who, Grand Funk, Sly and The Family Stone, Dylan and the great protest singers of the ‘60s. Nicoletta was soon writing short stories and lyrics and dreaming about becoming a songwriter, but ran into one big roadblock. “I couldn’t find a teacher who would take me on because I was left-handed. It was frustrating because I wanted to be a musician, but the world I grew up in resisted the idea. My friends and family had no interest in my musical ambitions.”

Nicoletta put his dreams on hold, but the frustration he felt took a toll. “The 20s were my lost years. There was a lot of self-destructive behavior, bad relationships and substance abuse. I was a mess. I still am today, but now I’m a controlled mess,” Nicoletta says with a self-conscious laugh. He finally picked up a guitar while he was a student at Colgate University. “I realized I didn’t have a choice. I had to do this. I taught myself folk guitar, backwards, sitting in my dorm room and playing for friends.”

About five years ago, Nicoletta turned things around. He got into rehab, got married, had a daughter and restrung his guitar to accommodate a lefty. He began building his chops. “Having my daughter, Isabella Marley Nicoletta (her middle name is inspired by Bob Marley,) and the music kept me from going off the deep end.” In the last five years Nicoletta’s worked hard, honing his songwriting and playing select gigs to showcase his material. He had a left hand Martin D-41 made for himself and also plays a 78 Fender Telecaster strung backwards and a Gibson Hummingbird.

Since completing Reckoning, which is dedicated to his daughter Isabella, Nicoletta has been writing songs for his next album and rehearsing for the solo acoustic tour he will do to support its official release. “Steve and I dedicated a year of our lives to making this record. I think we created a masterpiece. Now I have to get out and promote it.”

“I started playing live again when Reckoning was completed. I played an acoustic show at the Newport Blues Café; opening for a guy name Joe Bonamassa, who people say is better then Stevie Ray Vaughn. So, I was up there with my acoustic guitar in front of a crowd waiting for some high-energy blues. It was one of those nights that I got into the zone, because I knew the crowed was digging it. I believed that I had something to say, and the crowd was open to that, and even if nobody new the songs yet, it felt like something important was going on that night, and I think everybody felt that vibe. The next night, I was in the audience watching Dicky Betts from the Allman Brothers play. I thought, ‘I just played on this stage, and now Dicky Betts is up there playing some of the best songs ever written…yah, this is going to work out. It’s gonna take time, but this is definitely a good thing.’”

A lot has been accomplished for Nicoletta, “Reckoning was a grind to make. A process, and that’s how it’s getting into the public consciousness. These songs are being played on nearly two hundred college stations right now, and nobody has dropped the album from their rotations. It’s catching on like it was made. We’re building a foundation in stone, not sand. It’s slow and steady, and solid, but once it is there, its not going away.”

With a great album in the can and his personal demons in check, he continues to evolve as a musician, a father and a human being. “I just take it one day at a time. I’ve made mistakes and have a lot of things I have to pay for, but music and songwriting have saved my life. Making this album wasn’t about me, it was about getting the music out there. I’ve already had my songs downloaded about 20,000 times. For a new indie artist you can’t ask for more than that. As I say on the website, ‘Please pass the music on.’”

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