Fabrizio Grossi releases “With Or Without You” video featuring Bette Smith
Fabrizio Grossi & Soul Garage Experience releases his much awaited roots, soul, funk and blues infused solo debut album Counterfeited Soulstice Vol 1 on all digital platforms, via website, Amazon and in selected stores worldwide.
Accompanying the album is the apt for our times video ‘With Or Without You’ featuring soulstress Bette Smith which highlights issues affecting all walks of life across the planet and their consequences. “What if “Mother Earth” had enough of us?” ponders Fabrizio. “One might wonder why, but if we look at how we treat each other, our planet, our resources, & all living beings in general, it’s not that difficult to see where all of this is heading. After all “Mother knows best” right?”
Counterfeited Soulstice Vol 1 is an important milestone in the career of the Italian born (but proud Californian) multi talented producer/writer/musician and now front man. While his endless list of collaborations (Slash, Eric Gales, Gary Clark Jr, Billy F Gibbons, Steve Vai, Steve Lukather, Glenn Hughes, Leslie West, Joe Bonamassa, Warren Haynes, George Clinton & P-Funk…) is one step shy of making him blush when reminded, the reality of being in charge of front man duties is Fab’s new exciting challenge.
“This is hard, but great at the same time. With all the other great musicians that I’ve produced or played with, it was simpler in a way because their statuses and names got me ‘attention,’ but also ‘protection.’ With Soul Garage Experience it’s all balls out. I needed to be able to keep up with all the great monsters out there in the world. It’s all on me this time, well most of it.” he chuckles.
The band’s sound can easily be likened to Americana/Neo-Soul artists such as Vintage Trouble, Black Pumas, Gary Clark Jr, The Black Keys. Thanks to the backgrounds of the great musicians’ featured on the record, their own history and their endless love for Hendrix, Cream, James Brown, Bob Marley, and Curtis Mayfield alike, the resulting music experience offered by the band is an infectious groove laden combination of old and new school with a music prowess & ownership that turns heads and instigates curiosity. While its lyric content is socially aware, very positive, and poetically urban with a twist (even if the topics touched are no joke), it portrays Fab’s own upbringing as a citizen of the world with stops in Milan, London, Toronto, New York & his beloved LA. Fab is excited to bring his music to all, to excite, thrill, enlighten, and raise awareness of how we can all come together in the not only the most difficult but also the best of times.
This is the album Fab says he would have wanted to make if it was still 1972, sadly enough, the majority of its thematics could have worked back then, just as they are incredibly current today. The ghost of his first true music love Bob Marley is definitely felt throughout the whole record, and not only for the often embraced reggae tones, but for the simple, positive & direct way the often engaging and opinionated lyrics are narrated.
Maybe because of the western cities factor, Soul Garage Experience often adopted reggae draws, have more in common with Joe Strummer and Co, than with the sunny Jamaican rasta vibes, but the gritty funky/soul core of his music, and that urban proletarian spin of the Caribbean soundtrack, makes this record a happy re-discovery of all the colors of soul music we all grew up to know, and then some.
The record features some pretty solid talent in Stephen Perkins (Jane’s Addiction, Porno for Pyros), Hermann Matthews (Tower of Power, Stevie Wonder), Kenny Aronoff (John Fogerty, Joe Satriani, Paul McCartney), Bette Smith, Alastair Greene (Alan Parsons, solo artist), Diimond Meeks (American Idol & America’s Got Talent finalist and CeeLo Gen pupil), Alex Alessandroni Jr (Christina Aguilera, Whitney Houston, Pink, Natalie Cole), and again Derek Day, Dylan Meek, The Supersonettes (Francis Benitez & Andrea Grossi Benitez), Chris Hansen, Fabio Drusin and more!
24 year old fellow LA based rising maverick, Derek Day provides the incendiary guitar playing on most of the record. He infuses his music with the power of rock and a big chunk of soul. He comes with experience beyond his years having opened for and performed with luminaries in Steve Vai, Moby, and Slash.
Just as for his other award-winning band Supersonic Blues Machine, fronted by Kris Barras with Kenny Aronoff, that often sports guest appearances by Billy F. Gibbons, Eric Gales & many more sublime talents, the thrilling live shows of the outfit are heavily jam based, so as to embrace the golden era of live shows being the 60’s and the 70’s. Onstage, the ensemble easily moves between new crafted tunes and all time classics spanning time in Hendrix, Cream, Allman Bros, and Stevie Wonder, but they are a far cry from your regular covers band. This is a true Soul Garage Experience.
