The Venetian - I Wanna Tell You A Story

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The Venetian – IWanna Tell You A Story
2011, The VenetianThe Venetian isn’t so much a band as a force majeure.  Digging into the band’s past leads to morequestions than answers.  Somewhere outthere is a singer/songwriter who delights in blending the early roots of musicand opera with the raw blend of rock and roll. He is The Venetian, and his album is called I Wanna Tell You A Story.I Wanna Tell You AStory is one of the more unusual rock operas you’ll come across.    Songs alternative between traditionalItalian croon-tunes sung in Italian to forthright rock and roll sung inEnglish.  The Italian tracks are titledas consecutively numbers Acts (“Act I”, “Act II”, etc.), while the rock androll tracks are more descriptively named.  The tracks in Italian are well-crafted and well-sung, but I can’tcomment on the lyrical content.  The rockand roll tracks represent a baroque-rock tragedy that follows the relationshipof a boy with his father throughout the years of his life.Dad is a musician, the son doesn’t understand at first whyhis father is gone all the time.  TheVenetian takes us through the gamut of complicated emotions throughout I Wanna Tell You A Story, from theloneliness of a child who needs his dad, to the impact it has on lifedecisions, and to ultimate understanding as he, himself, becomes amusician.  In the end, the special bondthat father and son share is through music. They are forever connected in melody and rhyme, even if they are(meta)-physically distant in the end.The primary rock and roll influence on the album appears tobe Queen.  Particularly on tracks such as“Goodbye” and “I Wanna Tell You The Story”. The latter even references the classic Queen track “The Seven Seas ofRhye”, in case you didn’t get the sonic similarities.  As a vocalist, the closest match you’ll findfor The Venetian’s distinctive sound is Lawrence Gowan (Gowan, Styx).  From a songwriting experience, I Wanna Tell You A Story is very much up and down.  “Goodbye” and “Dancing Angel” aretremendously vibrant rock and roll numbers while exploring disparate timbresand sounds.  The mischievous rock waltz instrumental“Soft Snow” is brilliant, sounding as if it were inspired by the Gypsy violinstyle of Stephane Grappelli.  “Lullaby”is the closer; where all of the son’s struggles for understanding finallyresolve in a song in which he reaches out and touches the soul of his father.  It’s a wonderfully uplifting moment both inpoetry and song, and draws the entire experience e together.  “My Black Cat” is also a treat, bringing aslinky, cool jazz feel to the proceedings.I Wanna Tell You AStory has its less than exciting moments as well, particularly the middleof the road material such as “My Good Friend” and “Sometimes”, and the cheesycliché of “My Sweet Italian Pie”.  I Wanna Tell You AStory works very well as an early concept album for a one day rock and rollmusical.  The songs are generallywell-written and there is a narrative flow here that is impressive.  A true work up of this production wouldlikely result in a couple of the songs currently here being either dropped orseriously re-worked, but as a whole the work has great potential.  The Venetian is a strong vocalist who doesvery well within his comfortable range. The songs that require falsetto don’t always go as well, but he makes afair effort.Rating: 3.5 Stars(Out of 5)Learn more at www.thevenetianband.comor www.facebook.com/thevenetianbandpage.