| Issue #44
Dec
‘02
Frank Critelli is a singer
Frank Critelli is a songwriter
Frank Critelli is a teacher
Frank Critelli is a poet
And Frank Critelli has a problem…
He wants to be a better person so that he
can help
to make the world a better place.
Both/And is
Frank’s 4th CD, the 1st
released on the Meriden, CT based ThinManMusic
label, and it brings to the forefront Frank’s range of
musical stylings. Kudos to
sound engineer Roger Arnold, who has found a way to allow the
instrumentation to jump out
at us. The sound brings forth Frank’s coffee house intimacy
to its fullest virtue,
creating an astoundingly beautiful soundscape for the ears; whether it
is Frank’s
versatile vocals, acoustic strumming, intricate picking, or full-blown
band accompaniment.
It’s a musical element that brings to mind early James Taylor
(consider that a high
compliment – and for those who may scoff, we point only to
“Sweet Baby
James” and tell you that the artistic merit of the songs,
arrangements, melodies,
vocal deliveries, and lyrics show such parallels that if you put Both/And,
and Sweet Baby James in your CD player
and hit random, you will have a
musical gem of an afternoon).
The CD lays solid evidence of the
singer/songwriter evolving and growing over time into
a songwriter capable of full band orchestrations (This
Day, I Was
Only Sleeping, She
Drinks From Me, Bohemian
– each displaying a
variation of genres that shows Frank to be a disciple of many of the
songwriting icons we
all know and worship). What gives this disc its soul is Frank as the
poet/prophet, not
unlike Dylan, delivering deep, heartfelt lyrics, which are rooted in
the goodness of
humanity, that ultimately give the moral that we as individuals apply
to match our current
need.
And nothing exemplifies this more than
“If
I Were Me”
and “Dear
Puppeteer”
– The heart, the soul, the pure essence of not only this
disc, but of Frank Critelli
himself. Here the artist strips himself bare, exposing his innermost
being to a point
where we are allowed to reflect upon life through his values, and find
that the pearl of
humanity that he wishes to harvest and bestow upon the world, is still
being ground by the
sands of imperfection that we are always trying to wash away.
If I Were Me
relates a tale of a man reflecting on the past.
He wishes the better/wiser man (of now) were to have been the same one
from the beginning
and how his regret does show him that in growing older, he has grown
– still he
laments that he wasn’t a better man in earlier life;
“If I were me
I do things differently
I’d act appropriately
If I were me.”
But, if he had succeeded in being the person
he is
now, earlier in life, he
wouldn’t be the person he is today:
“Apparently
The fact is plain to see
I wouldn’t be the same
If I were me.”
And, he could not have made this disc
without
everything in his life that he has
endured – which in turn has fashioned a wonderful testament
to the fact that even
though life is hard and holds it’s own unique hurdles for
each of us, if taken into
context and applied correctly we can learn to allow it to shape and
form us into better
people, much in the same way a teacher tries to shape and form us. Life
is our teacher,
and hopefully we can in turn teach this to others, who will in turn do
the same, and
ultimately it could lead to making the world a better place.
Frank Critelli has stated that he wrote Dear
Puppeteer after
seeing Being John Malkovich, he has also
said that it is about God. Yet
one only has to look back to If I Were Me
to see that this song
is once again Frank opening his soul and showing us how he is trying to
come to terms with
his life, how it has gone, where it is going, and how it might end up.
Though he still has
trouble coming to terms with who he was, the realization is that he has
traversed a long
way, but the trek is still ongoing to become the man he wants to be.
So is the journey of life - It brings you to
places you sometimes know but fail to
recognize for what they are – thus the need of the education
of life; to understand
why we did what we did, and how, if ever, we are to arrive at where we
want to be –
this ageless torment of man is evident in all of us, yet it is the ones
who can display
their burden as a guidance for others who are the true teachers. But at
what price? For
some the problems that arise when questioning the course of life are
too much to carry
forth, thus hindering the effectiveness of their efforts. For others it
acts not only a
magnifier, but as a self-healer.
This is what Frank Critelli is all about. He
has
taken these life lessons and placed
them to verse and music so that he may share his life learning
experiences with us, in an
effort to not only help him understand and accept their value in the
role of his lifetime,
but for us to recognize and understand their worth in the course of
mankind.
Frank Critelli doesn’t have to
worry
about being a better person to help make the
world a better place; the world is already a better place because of
Frank Critelli.
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