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Prodigal son
Angelo Petraglia comes home
BY TED DROZDOWSKI

Long-time followers of the Boston music scene will remember Angelo Petraglia as the Dylanesque singer and songwriter who led the Immortals, a sharp roots-rock outfit that played the clubs, and even Great Woods (before it became the Tweeter Center), in the early ’90s. Before that he was the primary songwriter and guitarist in the major-label pop group Face to Face. But fans of contemporary country music know Petraglia as a credit on some of their favorite albums. Since moving to Nashville 10 years ago, he’s written hits and CD cuts for Kim Richey, Brooks & Dunn, Emmylou Harris, Martina McBride, and fellow singer-songwriter Patti Griffin. His biggest smash is "Believe Me Baby (I Lied)," which was a #1 hit for Trisha Yearwood and garnered a Grammy nomination.

"Moving here felt great from the start," he says over the phone. "I was collaborating with other songwriters right from when I first got to Nashville to check it out. And since I was back to bartending in Boston at the time, I knew I had to make the move."

Petraglia has become known in the Music City’s inner circles as the go-to guy when an album needs a shot of soul. But recently he’s been hankering for a dose of old-school R&B himself, as well for a return to the stage. So with the help of Face to Face and Immortals drummer Billy Beard and bassist Frank Swart, he’s put together the first band he’s had in a decade, the Rag Man Son Revue, who’ll make their Boston debut this Saturday at the Lizard Lounge. With just a handful of Nashville performances under their belt, the 10-piece group, who blend loops and samples with the classic-soul sonic signatures of a three-piece horn section and a Hammond B-3 organ, swept the Best New Band category in the Nashville Scene’s 2002 music poll. And there’s a debut CD under way.

"I really needed to do this as a release from the kind of work I’ve been doing, where every turn of phrase has to be meticulously crafted and it’s much more about the song than the music," Petraglia explains. "The Rag Man Son Revue is much more about being in the moment, being able to improvise and capture that kind of Sly Stone energy where anything can happen and the music is as much about what’s happening in the audience as what’s going on stage." The band live by the groove, often expanding Petraglia’s tunes into hypnotic one-chord mantras. "The songs can run anywhere from three minutes to 15 minutes, depending on where we take them."

Not that Petraglia’s about to give up his day job as writer to the country stars, but now he can have the best of two musical worlds. He may also be getting more calls from rockers in the near future. In addition to co-writing "Growin’ Pain" for Peter Wolf’s latest album, Petraglia co-wrote and arranged the new CD Youth and Young Manhood (RCA), by buzz band Kings of Leon. "I turned those guys on to the Rolling Stones and a lot of the older raw rock-and-roll stuff," he says of the three Followill brothers, who are the Kings’ nucleus. "They’re young, rebellious, hard-drinkin’, dope-smokin’ rock-and-rollers, and they’re a blast to work with."

The Rag Man Son Revue play the Lizard Lounge, 1667 Massachusetts Avenue in Cambridge, this Saturday, August 23. For information, call (617) 547-0759; for advance tickets, visitwww.virtuous.com.


Issue Date: August 22 - August 28, 2003
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