The Sorentinos

The Sorentinos are a San Francisco Bay Area guitar-based band, consisting of Danny Sorentino (guitar), Rob Ruiz (bass), Kenny Susan (drums and background vocals), Russ Kerger (keyboards), Howard Vatcher (guitar), Steve Lee (guitar). ?It is in fact our tenth CD and you should turn it up to ten when you play it! So it was a natural really.? Volume 10 is more evidence that music comes when it comes. A year in the planning which in Sorentino terms is at least 5 in dog years that boiled down to 12 tightly honed songs.

?It is in fact our tenth CD and you should turn it up to ten when you play it! So it was a natural really.?

Volume 10 is more evidence that music comes when it comes. A year in the planning which in Sorentino terms is at least 5 in dog years that boiled down to 12 tightly honed songs.

?This was always meant to be a Pop record. I was gonna record the whole album live to two track like an old Ricky Nelson record, but getting the band together on it proved impossible, so we recorded some in my home studio, some at Prairie Sun in Cotati and recorded some and mixed the whole thing at Dave's Room in Hollywood.? muses Danny.

Proof that much more care and consideration than ever before was bestowed upon Volume 10 was by enlisting Grammy Award winner David Bianco (Tom Petty, Teenage Fanclub, Ozzy) to mix the whole enchilada and being the inaugural project to come out of his newly christened Dave's Room in North Hollywood which rose from the ashes of the legendary Mama Jo's studio.

Songs songs it's all about the songs?.. Danny says ?On the whole I would say, this is probably our most accessible album yet, but still filled with all kinds of roots music, blues, country, jazz inflections ...we even have a song that has a cello section in it! Mix them all together and you get a real mess, which is what The Sorentinos have always been! I like to think we mix the mess our own way which gives us our own brand of Pop music.?

A fine mess indeed sprinkled with Danny's astute talent for finding the humour and the heartache of everyday life through lyric and song. Who else would dare compare gloom and turn it into sunshine on ?Ray Davies Day? Jangle all the way. Finding a humourous take on going broke ?Money Goes? and grunging and grumbling of impending older age glory of ?(It's Too Late To) Die Young? and ?Seventeen?. Angels and Hell remain major themes with ?You're Going Too? - Already called a tight little package, Volume 10 is a milestone for the band and yet another beginning just starting.

Back track:

2005's ?Way Out ?? celebrated The Sorentinos long awaited return?.of sorts. Four years has passed since The Major Label release ?The End Of The Day? and much had happened in between.

While on tour in England and driving back from The North for the two last London shows, news of ?9/11? was received. The TV monitoring began and perspective was emphatically put in place. The Borderline show on 9/12 was a good but emotionally tempered set. The 12 Bar Club finale on Friday the 13th rocked hard from frustration. The trip home to America was fraught with uncertainty even to get a flight as the US airspace was closed..

Time passed. Danny Sorentino in a blast of creativity released the internet only ?So Low? solo album and recorded a couple Christmas singles. Long-time bass player Rob Ruiz's announced band retirement which was responded quickly by Danny Sorentino recording and releasing ?Four Chord Wonders? under his own name. New rhythm section team of bassist Kent Fossgreen and drummer Kenny Susan added to backbone guitarist Steve Lee's and Danny's unswerving commitment to the music. This time around focus centered around the more humorous as well as poignant side of life.

Not long after, Rob realised the error of his ways and resumed the position as it were. Rob's fresh new contribution and energy was to instigate the 2003's ?Love And Haight? retrospective as he is always looking backwards anyway. Danny succumbed to the idea as he usually never looks back. So many songs and so little time.

Another London trip became the seeds for fresh new Sorentinos recordings there. 20 tracks were recorded in 2 days which many of which made the final cut on ?Way Out ??. Certainly heroic in intent.

?Way Out ?? turned into several pastiches that pay homage to the band's numerous influences from British blues to New York angst to West Coast hippie-dom. You could probably call it from Coast to Coast to Coast and everything in between past present and future.

More punishment is expected as The Sorentinos please those who know and expect those who know?.to grow.

Danny Sorentino's observations of ?life as it happens? through songwriting has continued to be the strength and dialogue which brings fans into ?the world according to Sorentino?. A world which, remarkably mirrors everyone else's - the same joys, hopes, frustrations and downright confusion we all go through; like it or not. But once you're in?.you're in for good.

Danny adds, "I have always thought of myself as a writer first and a musician second. The music is the method I use to deliver the message and hopefully with ever year that goes by, I get a little better at delivering the message".

Current Sorentino members Rob Ruiz on bass, Kenny Susan on drums and background vocals and Russ Kerger on keyboards, the inimitable Howard Vatcher (currently unfired from fired many times) on guitar and longstanding AWOL in London Steve Lee on guitar.

The San Francisco Bay Area band has remained on a steady course -- a potent mixture of guitar based musical influences ranging from the Beatles and Rolling Stones to Tom Petty, Bob Dylan and Neil Young to actually combine into something uniquely Danny's own. Simple, straightforward lyrics relating universal feelings in a timeless manner. All the goodness without the fat - nothing wrong with that -- neatly wrapped in a tidy value-for-money package. For many it seems that classic rock songs are back.

?The End Of The Day? (2001) was a coming together of sorts and seventh album in a string of acclaimed releases by The Sorentinos on The Major Label as many Sorentino members from all the years participated in the making. The album was voted Top 10 Best Album from fans' votes on Americana-uk.com, Netrhythms.co.uk Chief Editor Sue Cavendish's Top Album Of The Year and heralded in many others throughout America and Europe distributed by Evangeline/Universal.

?All Good Things...? (1999) and ?Family? (1997) were critically acclaimed and brought huge favor from both sides of the Atlantic. "Welcome To The Past," (1996), ?What We Dream? (1995) and ?Obviously Five Believers? (1994) add to the impressive CD catalogue. Dan's prolific songwriting has never meant of shortage a material to record.

Staunch Tinomaniac's radio KRSH/Santa Rosa CA continues to air tracks matching most superstar acts including the awarding of the coveted ?album of the week?. London's Time Out "Venue of the Year" winners the 12 Bar Club and The Borderline have all but adopted the band offering unprecedented support in the UK scene which also includes the BBC Radio's ?Whispering? Bob Harris (an English institution) among many others.

Sorentinos songs have so far graced no less than four "Melrose Place" episodes including the opening credits which are normally reserved for artists such as Sting or John Mellancamp. Other songs have been used in films "Lover's Knot" starring Tim Curry and Jennifer Grey, successful indie film fest movie "Follow The Bitch", and was solo-ed in CBS (US) Movie Of The Week "Co-ed Call Girl" starring Tory Spelling.

All this creates for a unique band calling America and the UK home and who continue to take on the world on their own terms.

A Sorentino favorite saying is ?Life is what happens in the meantime?.?. It continues for sure.

08-07

steve@worldlee.co.uk