by Alan K. StoutMusic Columnist
Bob Alunni comes from a family of musicians that helped expose him to a wide array of instruments. He’s also got some pretty eclectic musical tastes that seem to reach back beyond his years. And when it came time to record his album, “Thinking of Flight,” he was able to assemble a supporting cast of some of NEPA’s most respected musicians.
The result: a very Dylan-esque folk/rock album. And a pretty good one at that.
“I always tended towards the folkies,” says Alunni, 25, a native of Lake Ariel. “I remember when I was younger, my dad would play James McMurtry in his pickup truck when we were going places. His songwriting is still kind of a favorite of mine. I also like Bob Dylan, Neil Young, John Gorka, John Hiatt — all of those guys.”
After graduating from Lehigh University, Alunni says he moved to New York City for about a year and then relocated to Scranton. He was playing at an open-mic night when Bill Orner, the founder of locally based Prairie Queen Records, told him he liked his material and asked him to do an album. Among the nearly dozen guests on the CD are Orner and Jay Noble of the Orner Brothers, and prior to that, Mighty Fine Wine. Also contributing to tracks are Roy Williams from And The Moneynotes and J.P. Biondo and Jami Novak of Cabinet.
“Scranton’s a pretty small scene, and a lot of people are all in the same bands,” says Alunni. “I agreed to do the album, and we put the best guys on the parts we thought best. There were a few guys we couldn’t get included because of time, but it was pretty much a Bill thing. He’d say ‘I think this would be good on here,’ and obviously I’d say ‘Yeah’ or ‘Nay.’”
The album was recorded at The Cabinet Compound in Scranton and was mixed and mastered at The Windmill Agency in Mt. Cobb. In addition to Orner and all of the guest musicians, Alunni thanks Mike Stalter, Eric Ritter and Ian O’Hara for their help with the album. Tracks on the CD include “What It Comes To” and “Are You?,” which have received local airplay on 102.3-FM The Mountain.
Alunni says he’s never cared for mainstream rock. Ten years ago, when he was in high school, while lots kids were listening to Limp Bizkit and Creed, he was studying Dylan. And even within his own family, he was always exposed to different sounds. Between his father, brother and sisters, there were always guitars, violins, harmonicas and even flutes being played in the house.
“I’ve always liked all kinds of music,” he says. “I normally listen to a lot of jazz on the radio and stuff like that — even classical. And whenever I’m listening to something mainstream, I’ll listen to the lyrics, just to see what they’re talking about.”
As for his love of folk music, Alunni says it’s the storytelling aspect that’s always grabbed him.
“Stories are pretty much all we have,” he says. “Not that mine are anything great or that factual or autobiographical, but I’ve studied a lot of Dylan’s song structures, and he’s obviously one of the best songwriters out there. It seems he’s covered every topic that there is to cover. And just the way he uses phrases and his writing and his song structures — like A-B-A-B, or A-B-B-C — I picked up a lot of that from the folk scene.”
Another mentor to Alunni was Vic Juris, who he describes as “a really big jazz cat” who introduced him to even more sounds, including bossa nova.
“I actually had trouble finding a good classical teacher,” he says. “I talked to the music department at Lehigh and asked if they had anyone that they could line me up with, and they stuck me with Vic Juris. He actually teaches Paul Simon on the side and plays with Marko Marcinko, Tony Marino and Dave Liebman and those guys. I had lessons with him for two years. He’s just a great player.”
And yet another influence on Alunni are the gigs he played at Godfrey Daniels, a well-known folk club in Lehigh Valley that helped foster his love for the music. His work with poetry and creative writing and simply the people he meets in everyday life have all had an impact on his songs.
“Never assume that the writer is talking about themselves,” he says with a chuckle. “A lot of my music is based off of experiences and a point of view, but I can’t say I can pinpoint most of the stuff to specific things. It’s pretty much just the hilarity of it all. I meet a lot of characters. I always find myself at the right place at the right time — or the wrong place at the wrong time — but I always meet tons of characters that make me wonder about how people tick or why they tick.”
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Bob Alunni, Oct. 16 at 6:45 p.m. w/ Jay Noble at Anthology New & Used Books, 515 Center St., Scranton. Oct. 29 at 7 p.m. w/ Jay Noble at Northern Light Espresso Bar, 536 Spruce St., Scranton.
Info: www.bobalunni.com, myspace.com/bobalunni
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