Caught in the Carousel

SOULFUL FLOWER: Rocco DeLuca & the Burden

By David Porter

Rocco DeLuca

If there were any justice in the world of popular music (and, as a sophisticated Caught in the Carousel reader, you know there isn't), single "Colorful," the third song on Rocco DeLuca and the Burden's debut, I Trust You to Kill Me, would be the song of summer 2007, blaring out of transistor radios from San Onofre to the Seychelles.

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DeLuca's story evokes the legends of the howling bluesmen of yore. He spent his childhood and adolescence in the care of his grandmother and father, a touring guitarist in Bo Diddley's band. Once immersed in I Trust You to Kill Me, a sonically complex, emotionally direct, atmospheric and uncluttered work, it's easy to imagine a young DeLuca out on the road with his father, somewhere in the wee small hours of an American morning, drifting off at the back of a tour bus, mellifluous blues chords seeping into his sleep. DeLuca, a virtuoso on banjo, Dobro and guitar, has opened for John Lee Hooker (one of his heroes), Taj Mahal and John Mayall, and he has played with Johnny Cash, whom he describes as "a true artist and a true poet." DeLuca also enjoyed a two-year residency at the Gypsy Club, outside LA, before cutting I Trust You to Kill Me in 2006.

While I Trust You to Kill Me is an album of youth and young manhood, it possesses the breadth, depth, heft and poise of great classic rock. Produced by underrated Nineties singer-songwriter Jude Cole, also the co-founder—along with Kiefer Sutherland—of Ironworks Music, I Trust You to Kill Me is sonically complex and atmospheric, but uncluttered and emotionally direct, the "Big Music" as envisioned and played by Mike Scott of the Waterboys. I Trust You to Kill Me evokes giants like Neil Young and Led Zeppelin while lining up alongside modern legends such as the Afghan Whigs, Jeff Buckley, Jane's Addiction, Radiohead and Soundgarden. DeLuca is a great rock n' roll singer in the manner of Axl Rose and Greg Dulli, equally at home crooning wistful love songs or thunderous rockers—his voice is reminiscent of Jeff Buckley's, and also of Chris Cornell's and Robert Plant's when he sings near his highest register.

"Speak to Me" and "Dope" could have been peeled off a vinyl copy of Led Zeppelin III, while "Mystified" sounds a bit like Teenage Fanclub. "Bus Ride" is one of the saddest and loveliest songs on the record, a soundtrack for iPods and rainy windows, and when DeLuca sings, "I'm almost to the street where you live on," you realize that with the slide Dobro playing and percussion stripped away, the gentleman from LA can hold his own as a singer-songwriter. DeLuca wrote every song on I Trust You to Kill Me, with assistance from Jude Cole on "Colorful," which will remind you of Buckingham-Nicks era Fleetwood Mac, but with a V8 under the hood. The record moves effortlessly from raucous intensity to bedsit contemplation, and this fusion of hard blues-rock with DeLuca's singer-songwriter sensibility makes I Trust You to Kill Me an eminently satisfying and memorable listen. This is the kind of ambitious, visceral record, like Led Zeppelin I or Grace or Greetings From Asbury Park, that announces the beginning of a long and estimable career.

Jude Cole manages Lifehouse, and Ironworks Music has just released Ron Sexsmith's latest album, time being. Sutherland, in addition to his duties as co-founder of Ironworks Music and executive producer and star of 24, accompanied Rocco DeLuca and the Burden on the band's first tour of Europe during Christmas 2005, and Manu Boyer's documentary about this brief first tour, I Trust You to Kill Me, debuted at the Nashville Film Festival in April 2006. It is available on DVD, beautifully shot in color and black and white and absolutely worth viewing, a great rock n'roll movie.

During an interview with Boyer in I Trust You to Kill Me, DeLuca describes his music as a cry to be healed. "You gotta plant with the blood," he tells Boyer. "That's the only way you'll get a soulful flower."

Rocco DeLuca and the Burden continue their first-ever US headlining tour throughout August and September, which includes the following shows:

Friday, August 10^th. Ziggy's, Winston-Salem, NC.
Saturday, August 11^th. Neighborhood Theater, Charlotte, NC.
Wednesday, August 15^th. Exit/In, Nashville, TN.
Saturday, August 18^th. The Roxy, Atlanta, GA.
Friday, August 24^th. Culture Room, Ft. Lauderdale, FL.
Tuesday, August 28^th. House of Blues, New Orleans, LA.
Friday, August 31^st. Stubb's, Austin, TX.
Saturday, September 1^st. House of Blues, Dallas, TX.
Tuesday, September 4^th. Fox Theater, Boulder, CO.

DeLuca has said that a live performance "should be a fusion of passion and clarity. As a fan, that's what I would want to see." For complete tour dates, visit the band's Web site, www.roccodeluca.com.

Rocco DeLuca's Top Ten CDs to Lick Your Wounds With

Billie Holiday. Blue Billie. Buy Now

sigur rós. ( ). Buy Now

Nick Drake. Pink Moon. Buy Now

Bob Dylan. Time Out of Mind. Buy Now

Jocelyn Pook. The Merchant of Venice (soundtrack). Buy Now

Feist. Let It Die. Buy Now

Etta James. At Last. Buy Now

Elliot Smith. Either/Or. Buy Now

Keane. Under the Iron Sea. Buy Now

Edith Piaf. "J' M'en Fous Pas Mal." (available on Eternelle: Les Plus Grandes Chansons d'Edith Piaf, EMI).