There are singer-songwriters, and then there's Michael Fracasso. Declared by Dirty Linen as "one of the greatest singer-songwriters from the United States," the Austin, TX-based artist has been described as "a one man catalogue of American music" by The Chicago Tribune. Now with the dual release of his new and best album to date, A Pocketful of Rain, and the two disc career overview Retrospective, discerning listeners and music fans have the opportunity to discover and enjoy the full range of stunning creations from one of America's finest and most acclaimed musical artists.

As the Houston Post notes, "tagging him as a singer-songwriter seems limiting." After all, Fracasso excels as a vocalist, composer and performer "whose music crosses wide terrain from folk to R&B to rock," observed CMJ/New Music Report in its Triple AAA radio reviews section. It's a vision and gift that have attracted such other talents as Lucinda Williams, Patty Griffin, Charlie Sexton, Kelly Willis, Eliza Gilkyson and Ian McLagan to record, perform and share stages with him as well as sing his praises.

After all, first there's Fracasso's singing. "A tarnished bell of a voice that defines the high and lonesome country sound…. [a] haunting, quavering, deceptively powerful tenor" is how the Chicago Tribune describes it. His vocals have been compared in print to such masterful singers as Roy Orbison, Buddy Holly, Gene Pitney, John Lennon, Chris Isaak, Loudon Wainwright, Rodney Crowell, fellow Austinite Jimmie Dale Gilmore, both Everly Brothers "and even Bob Dylan" (Stereo Review). As Metroland succinctly puts it, "he can really sing," and with a voice Rolling Stone praises as "a marvelous instrument."

Then there are his songs, "full of a deep, almost spiritual gratitude for being alive and being able to remember, and a longing to discover what is hidden from view," says All Music Guide. As the Austin Chronicle observes, "Like the best classic pop and folk songwriters, Fracasso deals in common phrases and thoughts while avoiding cliches, drawing deceptively simple yet vivid imagery from the rich loam of American iconography." Or as esteemed critic Dave Marsh put it in Playboy, Fracasso is "a great rock writer."

Finally, there's his charm as a performer. In reviewing a 1998 South By Southwest show, New City described it as "40 beautiful minutes… that touched my soul" as Fracasso and his band "gloriously integrated Texas twang with Beatlesque popisms and a rocking enthusiasm. Fracasso's voice floated through the room and charmed the audience with heartfelt simplicity." And as the Oklahoma Gazette noted, "On a giant outdoor platform or an intimate stage, Michael Fracasso performs as though he is singing directly to whoever is filling any given seat in the venue."

On A Pocketful of Rain, his fifth and finest album and TMG/Lone Star Records debut, Michael Fracasso offers a dozen samples of his greatness as a writer and singer. With what No Depression calls his "shrewd combination of powerful images and memorable melodies," he creates virtual worlds within every cut. On the one hand, there are songs like "Pocketful of Rain" and "K.C." that brim with a seductive pop appeal. At the same time, he also dips into the heart of the Mississippi Delta on "Devil's Deal" (which features Patty Griffin on vocals) and "Ragamuffin Blues." Griffin also duets with Fracasso on the lovelorn lament "All or Nothing" that recalls the classic songs by the Everlys, while "Turned You Down" and "Mean Ol' Place" feature sharp social commentary. His recent fatherhood has inspired Fracasso to pen two disparate numbers: "Silver Spoon" is a joyous expression of parental love; "Hungry" conversely offers a haunting look at child abuse. With his signature subtlety, he delivers a message of hope in a fashion that recalls American songwriting giant Stephen Foster on "Whiskey Mother" and suggests a new twist on the 1960s flower power motif with "Shoot'n For Love" (with background vocals by Griffin and Gilkyson). Also included is a nod to the Texas tradition that he helps carry forward on "Loretta," a Townes Van Zandt song Fracasso worked up with his pal and Austin songwriting peer Beaver Nelson. All told, A Pocketful of Rain is American singer-songwriter music for the new century that, as the Oklahoma Gazette notes of Fracasso's work, "[puts] all the great strains of American music into a cohesive package," as well as one of those rare albums that truly touches the deep places within a listener's heart and mind.

To underscore Fracasso's artistic eminence, TMG/Lone Star also offers Retrospective, a two CD collection that collects his finest work to date alongside previously unreleased gems. Culled from his three previous studio CDs and more, this best of disc includes the contributions of such talents as Williams (who calls herself "one of his biggest fans"), Sexton and McLagan and his winning covers of "Just My Imagination" and the Ewan MacColl folk classic "Dirty Old Town." On the second disc, it reissues the largely as yet unheard Back to Oklahoma, a live performance by Fracasso and Sexton at Oklahoma City's Blue Door that All Music Guide hailed as "a contender for best singer songwriter album of 2001."

Growing up in the small town of Mingo Junction, Ohio, the son of Italian immigrant parents, in his youth Fracasso was probably more destined for the local steel mills than bound for glory. (His hometown served as the Pennsylvania coal mining burg in the film "The Deer Hunter.") But when a friend of one of his older sisters left a copy of Dylan's Blonde On Blonde at the house, he took up playing guitar and singing, but only in his bedroom for the sheer enjoyment of it. While studying environmental science at Ohio State University, he tried mill work for a few days and quickly discovered neither his body nor his soul were cut out for it. After graduation, Fracasso took a stab at postgraduate study in Washington State before he dropped out and found the notion of taking the songs he'd been writing public becoming ever more tempting.

When he read an article in The New York Times about the burgeoning new folk scene based around the Fast Folk Co-op at the Cornelia Street Café in Manhattan's Greenwich Village, Fracasso moved to New York City to try his hand at his musical art. There he fell in with a community of fellow talents like Suzanne Vega, Steve Forbert, The Roches, Shawn Colvin, Cliff Eberhardt, John Gorka and others. He also played the legendary Folk City and the East Village venues where the anti-folk scene was emerging along with performing band gigs backed by Downtown NYC roots rockers Hoy Boy & The Doys. He earned a favorable notice in Variety that described his songs as melding "a rustic sound with a city sensibility" and attracted backers interested in funding an album. But after honing his craft through the 1980s in the Big Apple, the offers never came to fruition and his musical career remained static. So at the end of the decade, he packed his possessions into a Volkswagen Rabbit and moved to Austin.

It was a propitious relocation. Starting out at open mike nights at Austin's legendary Chicago House and Austin Outhouse, he quickly won "Best New Artist" honors in the annual Music City Texas poll of music professionals during his first year in town. He also finally recorded an album, Love & Trust, that featured Williams on guest vocals, Austin guitar stars Gurf Morlix, Rich Brotherton and Mike Hardwick, and fiddler Gene Elders from George Strait's Ace in the Hole Band. It earned strong local notice and Top 10 honors in the local daily and weekly papers when he initially released it on cassette. The tape also prompted raves from Sound Views back in New York City as well as in CMJ/New Music Report ("a well defined trip through today's emotional landscape that tugs at the heart and sticks in your head with an impressive amount of power and grace"). When later released on CD in 1993 by the local Dejadisc label (with liner notes by Williams touting him), it was compared by The Washington Post to "one of Rodney Crowell's better albums" and elevated Fracasso's profile to a national level.

When I Lived in The Wild in 1995 garnered further raves in the Chicago Tribune (which called Fracasso "an undiscovered gem"), The Houston Post and Performing Songwriter (which placed him "on the short list of the best" from Texas"). It also earned him note again from The Washington Post and CMJ/New Music Report (which dubbed him "the kind of artist Triple AAA radio was designed to discover").

World in a Drop of Water in 1998, produced by Sexton, continued the string of praise. In addition to a favorable Playboy review by Marsh, it was praised in Crawdaddy! ("devastating stuff… a masterpiece") and The Austin Chronicle ("World has a rare appeal in that it seamlessly combines qualities that most pop records neglect and most pure singer-songwriters lack"). "Only Bruce Springsteen with Born To Run and Tom Petty with Damn The Torpedoes have come as close to such a definitive album," raved the Oklahoma Gazette. "It is easily the best album I have heard since Bob Dylan's Time Out of Mind and will be the best album of 1998 no matter what comes after it." The live album in 2001 with Sexton - re-released as part of Retrospective - was described as "a marvel" by Country Standard Time and won Best of 2001 honors in the Daily Oklahoman. And all the while, Fracasso has continued to win fans on the road, performing solo and with small combos and a full band, and opening shows for Williams, Griffin. Emmylou Harris and Joan Armatrading.

With the simultaneous release of A Pocketful of Rain and Retrospective, discerning listeners can savor three discs of the music that critics say "sent shivers up my spine" (Narragansett Times) and "[gets] you by the short hairs" (Stereo Review). Also hailed earlier in Stereo Review as "one of the best-kept secrets in Austin, Texas" - perhaps America's most fertile breeding ground for musical and songwriting talent - Michael Fracasso is an American classic whose time to be heard widely and in full has now come.

A Pocketful of Rain

Retrospective