Tony Lucca
He was cast by Justin Timberlake to play “the cool guy” in Timberlake’s directorial debut.
He finished third on The Voice in 2012, won a record deal in the process, and received more press coverage than any contestant on the show that season… or any season, for that matter.
He made a record with Adam Levine, then toured with Maroon 5 and Kelly Clarkson.
He was cast on the hit show “Parenthood” playing himself as a rock singer, and performed an original song.
He even starred in an Aaron Spelling prime-time drama and dated Keri Russell for years, winding up in countless gossip mags.
His name is Tony Lucca.
So why isn’t he a household name? Maybe he simply hadn’t made the right record before.
This time, Lucca believes he has. It’s his 8th full-length studio album, his first self-titled release, and first entirely self-produced effort.
“We went in with the intention of making a record that was as live-sounding as possible. I wanted to close my eyes and be able to visualize the players in the room or up on the stage, actually playing the songs together. One guitar over here, the other guy over there, bass, drums, some keys? I mean, that’s the rock-n-roll I fell in love with when I was a kid.” Lucca pulls inspiration from the heroes he heard on the radio growing up, from Tom Petty, Billy Squier to AC/DC’s Angus Young, tapping into a sense of timelessness he places somewhere between The Black Crowes and the Black Keys.
Each of the 12 songs on “Tony Lucca” are deeply personal. The record kicks off with “Old Girl”, Lucca’s rebuff to the music business treadmill. On the upbeat “Imagination”, Lucca recalls the evening where he met his wife… to the best of his ability. Lucca’s fans will enjoy the diverse sonic quality of four of his trademark ballads – the epic and sweeping piano-driven “North Star”, the optimistic “Smoke ‘Em”, the push and pull of love lost and found in “Right On Time”, and the sweet album closer that bares his daughter’s name, “Sparrow”.
Funded by a very successful Kickstarter campaign (one that hit its $25K funding goal just inside of 30 hours), Lucca feels strongly that his fans stepped up so that he could make the best record he possibly could – one he could finally feel comfortable releasing with his own name as the title. To that point, Lucca says “this record is pure. And honest. And hopefully completely refreshing to its listeners.”
Tony Lucca was born on the outskirts of Detroit on the heels of Motown’s heyday, raised within the loving confines of an enormous family of musicians; his mom was the 10th of 12 kids who all sang and played. At the ripe old age of 12, Tony had his first paying gig as a musician at a Jr. High School dance and by the age of 15, he parlayed his childhood rock-n-roll fantasy into a legitimate career, getting cast among an extraordinary group of newcomers on The All New Mickey Mouse Club, along with Justin Timberlake, Ryan Gosling and Britney Spears.
Shortly after graduating high school, Lucca wound up in LA and embarked upon an independent recording career that would span over 20 years. Along the way he’s toured with artists as colossal as Maroon 5, Kelly Clarkson, *NSYNC and Marc Anthony, as well as several of his fellow Hotel Cafe kin including Josh Kelley, Sara Bareilles, Joey Ryan (Milk Carton Kids), Gabe Dixon and Andrew Belle. Lucca won the LA Music Award for best male singer/songwriter in 2001 and appeared numerous times on Last Call with Carson Daly, as well as The Wayne Brady Show and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Also in 2013, Lucca was the sole entertainment for FOX’s NFL Thanksgiving Day telecast for the Detroit Lions vs. Green Bay Packers game.
Ernie Halter
When was the last time you needed help badly? Did you ever think that when you found that help, you’d find love as well? Picture Ernie Halter as he stood stranded on a lonely stretch of road in the middle of nowhere. Discouraged, worried, he got a call from a most unexpected source. “A girl whom I had met just once offered her car to me for as long as I needed it. No one had ever done anything that selfless for me. She continues to be my angel, and every day I am thankful for her help … and her love."
The song he wrote as a thank-you, “Angel,” is one of eleven tracks on his latest release, “Franklin & Vermont,” which features the stories found at the intersection of love and longing. This record chronicles the sometimes painful quest for love and the joy we feel when we finally find it.
Franklin and Vermont is what Halter calls home. These two cross streets in a quiet neighborhood within Los Angeles are “a few miles away and a world apart from my old place in Hollywood. I spend so much time on the road - I wanted the record to carry a bit of home wherever I went.”
“Franklin & Vermont” returns to the heartfelt arrangements and honest delivery of Halter's early material, a collection of songs recorded in his bathroom with, as he describes it, “one mic and one love.” The response was tremendous. “To this day, people tell me they love the early recordings for that laid back, raw, acoustic vibe, and I wanted ‘Franklin & Vermont’ to be a studio record with the same soul.” To achieve this, he enlisted engineers Spenser Bishop and Carson Liccardi of MixOne Sound in Mission Viejo, CA, not far from where Halter grew up. There they kept the setting intimate - in addition to his playing most of the instruments on the record, this was also Halter's first self-produced album.
His songwriting for this record maintains that closeness ntimacy, being heavily influenced by events in his own life and those of people close to him. The feelings experienced upon losing a loved one inspired “Gone,” and when Halter posted a live performance of this song on YouTube it quickly racked up over 10,000 views in its first week. “I started getting messages from fans saying how much they connected to the song,” he explains. “There is no greater reward.”
For those who realize that sometimes feelings aren’t enough to keep a relationship, Halter has penned “Hard To Let A Good Love Go.” “This Beautiful Ache” features the haunting vocals of Amy Kuney and Tony Lucca and describes the pain and pleasure a memory can bring – a theme also explored in “Almost You,” a co-write with Kyler England (The Rescues), Jason Spiewak and Richard Furch. Singing of a love you can't seem to forget, Halter laments, “best someone else could hope to do / is take second place / be almost you.” When listening to that song, it’s hard not to think of the one who got away.
Once in love, it is wonderful to find music that describes the journey. The up-tempo “We Got Love” penned in Nashville with Lady Antebellum guitarist Jason "Slim" Gambill is one such song. Along with “Angel,” “Come Home To Me” is a delicate ukulele-led melody co-written when Halter was missing his girl far from home.
As a special treat Halter has included two cover songs that are part of the soundtrack of his life; Coldplay’s bittersweet “In My Place” arranged for cello, voice, and ukulele, and an acoustic arrangement of “Black Coffee In Bed” by Squeeze. “More than anything, I wanted to make the kind of record I would enjoy listening to,” says Halter. “I covered songs I loved hoping others would love them as well.”
It is important to Halter that this record not only connects to the listeners, but helps them connect with each other as well. Catalyzing word of mouth in a digital age and making full use of the opportunities presented by the internet, he has built a fan base that includes over half a million followers on Twitter and the number one spot on Amazon.com for a free mp3 sampler consisting exclusively of Halter’s music.
From his status as a “digital troubadour” Halter had taken social networking off the computer and into the music venue. He encouraged fan connections to the point where they tell him they now hang out together before shows, visit one another on vacation, and meet at music festivals - using their mutual love of Halter’s music as a launching pad to form long-lasting friendships.
If Halter can’t always be there to see the relationships bloom, he’s happy that at least his music can. “I want to be the record you play while you make breakfast, make dinner, make out … I kept thinking of the songs that made up the soundtrack of my life and wanted to create songs that would help others form theirs.”
Are you looking for love lost? Or are you rejoicing in love found? Either way, the songs of someone who's been where you've been can be heard on “Franklin and Vermont.”
Lauren Hulbert
Indie folk rock from Oakland, CA. You will find Lauren Hulbert performing with her acoustic or electric guitar and if the mood strikes and there is a piano around you'll get lucky and get to hear some of her songs on the keys. Fans have said that perhaps the biggest draw to her music is her voice.
Lauren’s sultry, warm voice and wide variety of songs allows her music to transcend genres and attract even the most selective of listeners. Her songs, heartfelt and manifestly poetic, illuminate upon the bittersweet essence of the human condition, where love, pain and beauty are intricately interweaved into our everyday lives.
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He was cast by Justin Timberlake to play “the cool guy” in Timberlake’s directorial debut.
He finished third on The Voice in 2012, won a record deal in the process, and received more press coverage than any contestant on the show that season… or any season, for that matter.
He made a record with Adam Levine, then toured with Maroon 5 and Kelly Clarkson.
He was cast on the hit show “Parenthood” playing himself as a rock singer, and performed an original song.
He even starred in an Aaron Spelling prime-time drama and dated Keri Russell for years, winding up in countless gossip mags.
His name is Tony Lucca.
So why isn’t he a household name? Maybe he simply hadn’t made the right record before.
This time, Lucca believes he has. It’s his 8th full-length studio album, his first self-titled release, and first entirely self-produced effort.
“We went in with the intention of making a record that was as live-sounding as possible. I wanted to close my eyes and be able to visualize the players in the room or up on the stage, actually playing the songs together. One guitar over here, the other guy over there, bass, drums, some keys? I mean, that’s the rock-n-roll I fell in love with when I was a kid.” Lucca pulls inspiration from the heroes he heard on the radio growing up, from Tom Petty, Billy Squier to AC/DC’s Angus Young, tapping into a sense of timelessness he places somewhere between The Black Crowes and the Black Keys.
Each of the 12 songs on “Tony Lucca” are deeply personal. The record kicks off with “Old Girl”, Lucca’s rebuff to the music business treadmill. On the upbeat “Imagination”, Lucca recalls the evening where he met his wife… to the best of his ability. Lucca’s fans will enjoy the diverse sonic quality of four of his trademark ballads – the epic and sweeping piano-driven “North Star”, the optimistic “Smoke ‘Em”, the push and pull of love lost and found in “Right On Time”, and the sweet album closer that bares his daughter’s name, “Sparrow”.
Funded by a very successful Kickstarter campaign (one that hit its $25K funding goal just inside of 30 hours), Lucca feels strongly that his fans stepped up so that he could make the best record he possibly could – one he could finally feel comfortable releasing with his own name as the title. To that point, Lucca says “this record is pure. And honest. And hopefully completely refreshing to its listeners.”
Tony Lucca was born on the outskirts of Detroit on the heels of Motown’s heyday, raised within the loving confines of an enormous family of musicians; his mom was the 10th of 12 kids who all sang and played. At the ripe old age of 12, Tony had his first paying gig as a musician at a Jr. High School dance and by the age of 15, he parlayed his childhood rock-n-roll fantasy into a legitimate career, getting cast among an extraordinary group of newcomers on The All New Mickey Mouse Club, along with Justin Timberlake, Ryan Gosling and Britney Spears.
Shortly after graduating high school, Lucca wound up in LA and embarked upon an independent recording career that would span over 20 years. Along the way he’s toured with artists as colossal as Maroon 5, Kelly Clarkson, *NSYNC and Marc Anthony, as well as several of his fellow Hotel Cafe kin including Josh Kelley, Sara Bareilles, Joey Ryan (Milk Carton Kids), Gabe Dixon and Andrew Belle. Lucca won the LA Music Award for best male singer/songwriter in 2001 and appeared numerous times on Last Call with Carson Daly, as well as The Wayne Brady Show and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Also in 2013, Lucca was the sole entertainment for FOX’s NFL Thanksgiving Day telecast for the Detroit Lions vs. Green Bay Packers game.
Ernie Halter
When was the last time you needed help badly? Did you ever think that when you found that help, you’d find love as well? Picture Ernie Halter as he stood stranded on a lonely stretch of road in the middle of nowhere. Discouraged, worried, he got a call from a most unexpected source. “A girl whom I had met just once offered her car to me for as long as I needed it. No one had ever done anything that selfless for me. She continues to be my angel, and every day I am thankful for her help … and her love."
The song he wrote as a thank-you, “Angel,” is one of eleven tracks on his latest release, “Franklin & Vermont,” which features the stories found at the intersection of love and longing. This record chronicles the sometimes painful quest for love and the joy we feel when we finally find it.
Franklin and Vermont is what Halter calls home. These two cross streets in a quiet neighborhood within Los Angeles are “a few miles away and a world apart from my old place in Hollywood. I spend so much time on the road - I wanted the record to carry a bit of home wherever I went.”
“Franklin & Vermont” returns to the heartfelt arrangements and honest delivery of Halter's early material, a collection of songs recorded in his bathroom with, as he describes it, “one mic and one love.” The response was tremendous. “To this day, people tell me they love the early recordings for that laid back, raw, acoustic vibe, and I wanted ‘Franklin & Vermont’ to be a studio record with the same soul.” To achieve this, he enlisted engineers Spenser Bishop and Carson Liccardi of MixOne Sound in Mission Viejo, CA, not far from where Halter grew up. There they kept the setting intimate - in addition to his playing most of the instruments on the record, this was also Halter's first self-produced album.
His songwriting for this record maintains that closeness ntimacy, being heavily influenced by events in his own life and those of people close to him. The feelings experienced upon losing a loved one inspired “Gone,” and when Halter posted a live performance of this song on YouTube it quickly racked up over 10,000 views in its first week. “I started getting messages from fans saying how much they connected to the song,” he explains. “There is no greater reward.”
For those who realize that sometimes feelings aren’t enough to keep a relationship, Halter has penned “Hard To Let A Good Love Go.” “This Beautiful Ache” features the haunting vocals of Amy Kuney and Tony Lucca and describes the pain and pleasure a memory can bring – a theme also explored in “Almost You,” a co-write with Kyler England (The Rescues), Jason Spiewak and Richard Furch. Singing of a love you can't seem to forget, Halter laments, “best someone else could hope to do / is take second place / be almost you.” When listening to that song, it’s hard not to think of the one who got away.
Once in love, it is wonderful to find music that describes the journey. The up-tempo “We Got Love” penned in Nashville with Lady Antebellum guitarist Jason "Slim" Gambill is one such song. Along with “Angel,” “Come Home To Me” is a delicate ukulele-led melody co-written when Halter was missing his girl far from home.
As a special treat Halter has included two cover songs that are part of the soundtrack of his life; Coldplay’s bittersweet “In My Place” arranged for cello, voice, and ukulele, and an acoustic arrangement of “Black Coffee In Bed” by Squeeze. “More than anything, I wanted to make the kind of record I would enjoy listening to,” says Halter. “I covered songs I loved hoping others would love them as well.”
It is important to Halter that this record not only connects to the listeners, but helps them connect with each other as well. Catalyzing word of mouth in a digital age and making full use of the opportunities presented by the internet, he has built a fan base that includes over half a million followers on Twitter and the number one spot on Amazon.com for a free mp3 sampler consisting exclusively of Halter’s music.
From his status as a “digital troubadour” Halter had taken social networking off the computer and into the music venue. He encouraged fan connections to the point where they tell him they now hang out together before shows, visit one another on vacation, and meet at music festivals - using their mutual love of Halter’s music as a launching pad to form long-lasting friendships.
If Halter can’t always be there to see the relationships bloom, he’s happy that at least his music can. “I want to be the record you play while you make breakfast, make dinner, make out … I kept thinking of the songs that made up the soundtrack of my life and wanted to create songs that would help others form theirs.”
Are you looking for love lost? Or are you rejoicing in love found? Either way, the songs of someone who's been where you've been can be heard on “Franklin and Vermont.”
Lauren Hulbert
Indie folk rock from Oakland, CA. You will find Lauren Hulbert performing with her acoustic or electric guitar and if the mood strikes and there is a piano around you'll get lucky and get to hear some of her songs on the keys. Fans have said that perhaps the biggest draw to her music is her voice.
Lauren’s sultry, warm voice and wide variety of songs allows her music to transcend genres and attract even the most selective of listeners. Her songs, heartfelt and manifestly poetic, illuminate upon the bittersweet essence of the human condition, where love, pain and beauty are intricately interweaved into our everyday lives.
Tony Lucca
He was cast by Justin Timberlake to play “the cool guy” in Timberlake’s directorial debut.
He finished third on The Voice in 2012, won a record deal in the process, and received more press coverage than any contestant on the show that season… or any season, for that matter.
He made a record with Adam Levine, then toured with Maroon 5 and Kelly Clarkson.
He was cast on the hit show “Parenthood” playing himself as a rock singer, and performed an original song.
He even starred in an Aaron Spelling prime-time drama and dated Keri Russell for years, winding up in countless gossip mags.
His name is Tony Lucca.
So why isn’t he a household name? Maybe he simply hadn’t made the right record before.
This time, Lucca believes he has. It’s his 8th full-length studio album, his first self-titled release, and first entirely self-produced effort.
“We went in with the intention of making a record that was as live-sounding as possible. I wanted to close my eyes and be able to visualize the players in the room or up on the stage, actually playing the songs together. One guitar over here, the other guy over there, bass, drums, some keys? I mean, that’s the rock-n-roll I fell in love with when I was a kid.” Lucca pulls inspiration from the heroes he heard on the radio growing up, from Tom Petty, Billy Squier to AC/DC’s Angus Young, tapping into a sense of timelessness he places somewhere between The Black Crowes and the Black Keys.
Each of the 12 songs on “Tony Lucca” are deeply personal. The record kicks off with “Old Girl”, Lucca’s rebuff to the music business treadmill. On the upbeat “Imagination”, Lucca recalls the evening where he met his wife… to the best of his ability. Lucca’s fans will enjoy the diverse sonic quality of four of his trademark ballads – the epic and sweeping piano-driven “North Star”, the optimistic “Smoke ‘Em”, the push and pull of love lost and found in “Right On Time”, and the sweet album closer that bares his daughter’s name, “Sparrow”.
Funded by a very successful Kickstarter campaign (one that hit its $25K funding goal just inside of 30 hours), Lucca feels strongly that his fans stepped up so that he could make the best record he possibly could – one he could finally feel comfortable releasing with his own name as the title. To that point, Lucca says “this record is pure. And honest. And hopefully completely refreshing to its listeners.”
Tony Lucca was born on the outskirts of Detroit on the heels of Motown’s heyday, raised within the loving confines of an enormous family of musicians; his mom was the 10th of 12 kids who all sang and played. At the ripe old age of 12, Tony had his first paying gig as a musician at a Jr. High School dance and by the age of 15, he parlayed his childhood rock-n-roll fantasy into a legitimate career, getting cast among an extraordinary group of newcomers on The All New Mickey Mouse Club, along with Justin Timberlake, Ryan Gosling and Britney Spears.
Shortly after graduating high school, Lucca wound up in LA and embarked upon an independent recording career that would span over 20 years. Along the way he’s toured with artists as colossal as Maroon 5, Kelly Clarkson, *NSYNC and Marc Anthony, as well as several of his fellow Hotel Cafe kin including Josh Kelley, Sara Bareilles, Joey Ryan (Milk Carton Kids), Gabe Dixon and Andrew Belle. Lucca won the LA Music Award for best male singer/songwriter in 2001 and appeared numerous times on Last Call with Carson Daly, as well as The Wayne Brady Show and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Also in 2013, Lucca was the sole entertainment for FOX’s NFL Thanksgiving Day telecast for the Detroit Lions vs. Green Bay Packers game.
Ernie Halter
When was the last time you needed help badly? Did you ever think that when you found that help, you’d find love as well? Picture Ernie Halter as he stood stranded on a lonely stretch of road in the middle of nowhere. Discouraged, worried, he got a call from a most unexpected source. “A girl whom I had met just once offered her car to me for as long as I needed it. No one had ever done anything that selfless for me. She continues to be my angel, and every day I am thankful for her help … and her love."
The song he wrote as a thank-you, “Angel,” is one of eleven tracks on his latest release, “Franklin & Vermont,” which features the stories found at the intersection of love and longing. This record chronicles the sometimes painful quest for love and the joy we feel when we finally find it.
Franklin and Vermont is what Halter calls home. These two cross streets in a quiet neighborhood within Los Angeles are “a few miles away and a world apart from my old place in Hollywood. I spend so much time on the road - I wanted the record to carry a bit of home wherever I went.”
“Franklin & Vermont” returns to the heartfelt arrangements and honest delivery of Halter's early material, a collection of songs recorded in his bathroom with, as he describes it, “one mic and one love.” The response was tremendous. “To this day, people tell me they love the early recordings for that laid back, raw, acoustic vibe, and I wanted ‘Franklin & Vermont’ to be a studio record with the same soul.” To achieve this, he enlisted engineers Spenser Bishop and Carson Liccardi of MixOne Sound in Mission Viejo, CA, not far from where Halter grew up. There they kept the setting intimate - in addition to his playing most of the instruments on the record, this was also Halter's first self-produced album.
His songwriting for this record maintains that closeness ntimacy, being heavily influenced by events in his own life and those of people close to him. The feelings experienced upon losing a loved one inspired “Gone,” and when Halter posted a live performance of this song on YouTube it quickly racked up over 10,000 views in its first week. “I started getting messages from fans saying how much they connected to the song,” he explains. “There is no greater reward.”
For those who realize that sometimes feelings aren’t enough to keep a relationship, Halter has penned “Hard To Let A Good Love Go.” “This Beautiful Ache” features the haunting vocals of Amy Kuney and Tony Lucca and describes the pain and pleasure a memory can bring – a theme also explored in “Almost You,” a co-write with Kyler England (The Rescues), Jason Spiewak and Richard Furch. Singing of a love you can't seem to forget, Halter laments, “best someone else could hope to do / is take second place / be almost you.” When listening to that song, it’s hard not to think of the one who got away.
Once in love, it is wonderful to find music that describes the journey. The up-tempo “We Got Love” penned in Nashville with Lady Antebellum guitarist Jason "Slim" Gambill is one such song. Along with “Angel,” “Come Home To Me” is a delicate ukulele-led melody co-written when Halter was missing his girl far from home.
As a special treat Halter has included two cover songs that are part of the soundtrack of his life; Coldplay’s bittersweet “In My Place” arranged for cello, voice, and ukulele, and an acoustic arrangement of “Black Coffee In Bed” by Squeeze. “More than anything, I wanted to make the kind of record I would enjoy listening to,” says Halter. “I covered songs I loved hoping others would love them as well.”
It is important to Halter that this record not only connects to the listeners, but helps them connect with each other as well. Catalyzing word of mouth in a digital age and making full use of the opportunities presented by the internet, he has built a fan base that includes over half a million followers on Twitter and the number one spot on Amazon.com for a free mp3 sampler consisting exclusively of Halter’s music.
From his status as a “digital troubadour” Halter had taken social networking off the computer and into the music venue. He encouraged fan connections to the point where they tell him they now hang out together before shows, visit one another on vacation, and meet at music festivals - using their mutual love of Halter’s music as a launching pad to form long-lasting friendships.
If Halter can’t always be there to see the relationships bloom, he’s happy that at least his music can. “I want to be the record you play while you make breakfast, make dinner, make out … I kept thinking of the songs that made up the soundtrack of my life and wanted to create songs that would help others form theirs.”
Are you looking for love lost? Or are you rejoicing in love found? Either way, the songs of someone who's been where you've been can be heard on “Franklin and Vermont.”
Lauren Hulbert
Indie folk rock from Oakland, CA. You will find Lauren Hulbert performing with her acoustic or electric guitar and if the mood strikes and there is a piano around you'll get lucky and get to hear some of her songs on the keys. Fans have said that perhaps the biggest draw to her music is her voice.
Lauren’s sultry, warm voice and wide variety of songs allows her music to transcend genres and attract even the most selective of listeners. Her songs, heartfelt and manifestly poetic, illuminate upon the bittersweet essence of the human condition, where love, pain and beauty are intricately interweaved into our everyday lives.
read more
He was cast by Justin Timberlake to play “the cool guy” in Timberlake’s directorial debut.
He finished third on The Voice in 2012, won a record deal in the process, and received more press coverage than any contestant on the show that season… or any season, for that matter.
He made a record with Adam Levine, then toured with Maroon 5 and Kelly Clarkson.
He was cast on the hit show “Parenthood” playing himself as a rock singer, and performed an original song.
He even starred in an Aaron Spelling prime-time drama and dated Keri Russell for years, winding up in countless gossip mags.
His name is Tony Lucca.
So why isn’t he a household name? Maybe he simply hadn’t made the right record before.
This time, Lucca believes he has. It’s his 8th full-length studio album, his first self-titled release, and first entirely self-produced effort.
“We went in with the intention of making a record that was as live-sounding as possible. I wanted to close my eyes and be able to visualize the players in the room or up on the stage, actually playing the songs together. One guitar over here, the other guy over there, bass, drums, some keys? I mean, that’s the rock-n-roll I fell in love with when I was a kid.” Lucca pulls inspiration from the heroes he heard on the radio growing up, from Tom Petty, Billy Squier to AC/DC’s Angus Young, tapping into a sense of timelessness he places somewhere between The Black Crowes and the Black Keys.
Each of the 12 songs on “Tony Lucca” are deeply personal. The record kicks off with “Old Girl”, Lucca’s rebuff to the music business treadmill. On the upbeat “Imagination”, Lucca recalls the evening where he met his wife… to the best of his ability. Lucca’s fans will enjoy the diverse sonic quality of four of his trademark ballads – the epic and sweeping piano-driven “North Star”, the optimistic “Smoke ‘Em”, the push and pull of love lost and found in “Right On Time”, and the sweet album closer that bares his daughter’s name, “Sparrow”.
Funded by a very successful Kickstarter campaign (one that hit its $25K funding goal just inside of 30 hours), Lucca feels strongly that his fans stepped up so that he could make the best record he possibly could – one he could finally feel comfortable releasing with his own name as the title. To that point, Lucca says “this record is pure. And honest. And hopefully completely refreshing to its listeners.”
Tony Lucca was born on the outskirts of Detroit on the heels of Motown’s heyday, raised within the loving confines of an enormous family of musicians; his mom was the 10th of 12 kids who all sang and played. At the ripe old age of 12, Tony had his first paying gig as a musician at a Jr. High School dance and by the age of 15, he parlayed his childhood rock-n-roll fantasy into a legitimate career, getting cast among an extraordinary group of newcomers on The All New Mickey Mouse Club, along with Justin Timberlake, Ryan Gosling and Britney Spears.
Shortly after graduating high school, Lucca wound up in LA and embarked upon an independent recording career that would span over 20 years. Along the way he’s toured with artists as colossal as Maroon 5, Kelly Clarkson, *NSYNC and Marc Anthony, as well as several of his fellow Hotel Cafe kin including Josh Kelley, Sara Bareilles, Joey Ryan (Milk Carton Kids), Gabe Dixon and Andrew Belle. Lucca won the LA Music Award for best male singer/songwriter in 2001 and appeared numerous times on Last Call with Carson Daly, as well as The Wayne Brady Show and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Also in 2013, Lucca was the sole entertainment for FOX’s NFL Thanksgiving Day telecast for the Detroit Lions vs. Green Bay Packers game.
Ernie Halter
When was the last time you needed help badly? Did you ever think that when you found that help, you’d find love as well? Picture Ernie Halter as he stood stranded on a lonely stretch of road in the middle of nowhere. Discouraged, worried, he got a call from a most unexpected source. “A girl whom I had met just once offered her car to me for as long as I needed it. No one had ever done anything that selfless for me. She continues to be my angel, and every day I am thankful for her help … and her love."
The song he wrote as a thank-you, “Angel,” is one of eleven tracks on his latest release, “Franklin & Vermont,” which features the stories found at the intersection of love and longing. This record chronicles the sometimes painful quest for love and the joy we feel when we finally find it.
Franklin and Vermont is what Halter calls home. These two cross streets in a quiet neighborhood within Los Angeles are “a few miles away and a world apart from my old place in Hollywood. I spend so much time on the road - I wanted the record to carry a bit of home wherever I went.”
“Franklin & Vermont” returns to the heartfelt arrangements and honest delivery of Halter's early material, a collection of songs recorded in his bathroom with, as he describes it, “one mic and one love.” The response was tremendous. “To this day, people tell me they love the early recordings for that laid back, raw, acoustic vibe, and I wanted ‘Franklin & Vermont’ to be a studio record with the same soul.” To achieve this, he enlisted engineers Spenser Bishop and Carson Liccardi of MixOne Sound in Mission Viejo, CA, not far from where Halter grew up. There they kept the setting intimate - in addition to his playing most of the instruments on the record, this was also Halter's first self-produced album.
His songwriting for this record maintains that closeness ntimacy, being heavily influenced by events in his own life and those of people close to him. The feelings experienced upon losing a loved one inspired “Gone,” and when Halter posted a live performance of this song on YouTube it quickly racked up over 10,000 views in its first week. “I started getting messages from fans saying how much they connected to the song,” he explains. “There is no greater reward.”
For those who realize that sometimes feelings aren’t enough to keep a relationship, Halter has penned “Hard To Let A Good Love Go.” “This Beautiful Ache” features the haunting vocals of Amy Kuney and Tony Lucca and describes the pain and pleasure a memory can bring – a theme also explored in “Almost You,” a co-write with Kyler England (The Rescues), Jason Spiewak and Richard Furch. Singing of a love you can't seem to forget, Halter laments, “best someone else could hope to do / is take second place / be almost you.” When listening to that song, it’s hard not to think of the one who got away.
Once in love, it is wonderful to find music that describes the journey. The up-tempo “We Got Love” penned in Nashville with Lady Antebellum guitarist Jason "Slim" Gambill is one such song. Along with “Angel,” “Come Home To Me” is a delicate ukulele-led melody co-written when Halter was missing his girl far from home.
As a special treat Halter has included two cover songs that are part of the soundtrack of his life; Coldplay’s bittersweet “In My Place” arranged for cello, voice, and ukulele, and an acoustic arrangement of “Black Coffee In Bed” by Squeeze. “More than anything, I wanted to make the kind of record I would enjoy listening to,” says Halter. “I covered songs I loved hoping others would love them as well.”
It is important to Halter that this record not only connects to the listeners, but helps them connect with each other as well. Catalyzing word of mouth in a digital age and making full use of the opportunities presented by the internet, he has built a fan base that includes over half a million followers on Twitter and the number one spot on Amazon.com for a free mp3 sampler consisting exclusively of Halter’s music.
From his status as a “digital troubadour” Halter had taken social networking off the computer and into the music venue. He encouraged fan connections to the point where they tell him they now hang out together before shows, visit one another on vacation, and meet at music festivals - using their mutual love of Halter’s music as a launching pad to form long-lasting friendships.
If Halter can’t always be there to see the relationships bloom, he’s happy that at least his music can. “I want to be the record you play while you make breakfast, make dinner, make out … I kept thinking of the songs that made up the soundtrack of my life and wanted to create songs that would help others form theirs.”
Are you looking for love lost? Or are you rejoicing in love found? Either way, the songs of someone who's been where you've been can be heard on “Franklin and Vermont.”
Lauren Hulbert
Indie folk rock from Oakland, CA. You will find Lauren Hulbert performing with her acoustic or electric guitar and if the mood strikes and there is a piano around you'll get lucky and get to hear some of her songs on the keys. Fans have said that perhaps the biggest draw to her music is her voice.
Lauren’s sultry, warm voice and wide variety of songs allows her music to transcend genres and attract even the most selective of listeners. Her songs, heartfelt and manifestly poetic, illuminate upon the bittersweet essence of the human condition, where love, pain and beauty are intricately interweaved into our everyday lives.
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406 Clement Street, San Francisco, CA 94118
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