Review by Live Unsigned (www.liveunsigned.com)
Paul Cataldo sings songs about things, where most people use things as pretexts for songs. There is some great playing, some beautiful singing, and some nuanced, sensitive, idiomatic performing, but that’s never the point of it: this is a man with something to say. Something warm, generous, sad, majestic, lonesome, gritty, weatherbeaten and true.
Review by Don Zelazny (Americana Roots.com)
9/27/10
I love discovering a talented new singer-songwriter. In this case, a new singer-songwriter reached out to us here at AmericanaRoots.com and offered to send a disc to check out. Check it out I did and dig it I do (say that 3 times fast…)!!
The mountains of western North Carolina are home to Paul Cataldo, who has released his first full length disc, Rivers, Roads and Mountains. Fittingly, the disc was recorded at Quad Studios, the same Nashville studio that birthed Neil Young’s Harvest (Young being one of Paul’s earliest musical influences).
Paul wrote all 11 tunes on the disc, on which he is joined by a slew of Nashville musicians. His voice is very easy on the ears, with just a twinge of southern drawl, perfect for these tunes about, well, rivers, roads and mountains. Its a very catchy disc, with several melodies getting firmly stuck in my head, especially from Diggin For Diamonds (in a coalmine), which is way more enjoyable that the Dora the Explorer theme which usually occupies that spot…
There’s plenty of guitar, harmonica, dobro, steelguitar, mandolin, fiddle and banjo to satisfy any Americana fan. Among the highlights is the fiddle laced opener Mountain Town, a happy ode to Paul’s roots. Of course there is a song about losing a girl (seriously losing, fell out of a canoe..), Damn You River. How about after losing a girl, such as in
Don’t Bet It On The Farm:
It all starts when the crickets go silent
Then you hear the crash of iron on iron
When the sun won’t break the clouds
And your lover stops coming around
Sometimes alone is your safest bet
Like getting clean without getting wet
Rambling around from town to town
With no weight holding you down you’ll never drown
Rivers, Roads and Mountains is a disc I highly recommend from a talented new artist who is really worth checking out. I look forward to Paul’s next disc for sure!
-Don Zelazny
Singing of the Love of Mountain Living
"Rivers, Roads & Mountains"
by Amy Ammons Garza
Fun Things to do in the Mountains is now in it’s 18th year. I came on board when the paper was slightly over a year old, and have been continuously writing about the people who live in Western North Carolina almost every month for 17 years. Sometimes I write five stories a month...sometimes ten...and edit even more! For many of the interviews, I’ve found a theme running through them: the business owners who have come here from somewhere else were brought here as children on vacation, or sent here to summer camp during their formative years. They never forgot their love of the beautiful mountains. So, when they decided to retire, they were drawn back to the mountains they love...and could not just sit down and twiddle their thumbs...so they opened a gift store, a restaurant, a book store...or a place where they could experience what they had been craving most of their adult lives.
And then, there are those who just happen to choose the mountains of western North Carolina for a vacation, or come here for other reasons, and are “drawn” to this green land of plenty and have the courage not to wait until retirement to change their lives. This is what happened with a young country/folk musician, Paul Cataldo, who was recently interviewed on Catch the Spirit of Appalachia’s radio show, “Stories of Mountain Folk.” Paul, a singer, songwriter, has written of his love of the mountains in his album “Rivers, Roads & Mountains,” singing of what many of us have experienced, and captured in only a few words what we feel—just consider....
Going back to the mountain town
City life's really gotten me down
Going back to the mountain town
Cabin living way up in the sky
That mountain air gets me so high
I’m never coming down from those clouds
But it took a lot of “running” before he found it. On the way, he wrote this:
Thinkin’ bout runnin, Oh Thinkin’
Breezing through small towns, clean of my name
Eating in old dive bars,
Singing for my pay
With a depth belying his age, Paul is writing from his heart and using his vast talent to tell his story. Everyone has a gift, a story, a song...and when you’re knee-deep within your song of life, it’s grasp does the leading...and you instinctively know it. Paul sees progress and says:
Old house down the road ain’t there no more
Neither is Charlie’s hardware store
I’m a stranger in my own home town
I ain’t been home in ages
This here road still brings me back home
And back again…
And now, in a cabin deep within the nature of Black Mountain, North Carolina, he rests in his “Mountain Town” lyrics:
Owl calls most every night
While I’m fishing for the cats in the firefly light
Wading in the moon on the water burning white
Crickets scream and it frees my soul
I’m gonna stay till I grow old
When I die please lay me down
In the river below
Take a minute, or five or six, and go to website www.paulcataldo.com, and listen to the wealth of one man whose style and voice carries you full circle through the struggles of lost love, of environmental concern, always making his way back to his love of the mountains. You might want to buy his album, and listen to it while you tour the mountainsides this June...for the mountain laurel is about ready to bloom over the rivers, roads and mountains.
-Amy Ammons Garza (Fun Things to do in the Mountains)
Review for Rivers, Roads & Mountains in Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)
Paul Cataldo's upbeat, rhythmic collection, Rivers, Roads & Mountains plays with all the vigor and snap of a strong cup of coffee. “Going back where the roads are dirt and the girls don’t frown,” he sings on the lead track, “Mountain Town.” Cataldo’s voice is a rich baritone, his delivery direct and unembellished — the sort of warm, confident style that suits straight forward Americana.
But not every song on Rivers is a happy romp through mountain living. Though the album is thoroughly modern, Cataldo takes a turn at age-old subjects. “Damn You River” is a 21st century take on “The Wind and Rain;” “What’s in This Water” offers up a sharply environmentalist perspective from the point of view of one who lives on and loves the land. Plus, the line, “What’s in this water we are drinking, what’s in these thoughts we are thinking” makes short work of the treatment of the natural environment as apt metaphor for the state of humanity.
That Cataldo was raised in Boston seems only a footnote to his deeply rootsy sound. While his own prowess on acoustic guitar and harmonica creates a solid base for the record, it’s the savvy addition fiddle, mandolin, peddle steel, Dobro and banjo that anchors Rivers to a specifically southern sense of place. Appropriately, after a stint as a New York City-based singer/songwriter, Cataldo relocated to Black Mountain, a town which suits his country-tinged flannel shirt and blue jeans aesthetic.
Though Cataldo seems to have settled down (for the time being, at least), “Thinkin’ About Runnin’” is a stand out track on Rivers, with a driving beat, some excellent everyman lyrics (“Bills are everywhere, rents is overdue, I probably even owe some money to you”), a deliciously metallic Dobro part and Cataldo’s own vocals pushing toward the upper reach of his register. Also worthy of space on the jukebox: “I Wish I Didn’t Have a Heart,” an old-school made-for-crying-in-beer country tear jerker delivered in a chunky, up-tempo waltz with perfectly-placed pedal steel.
Catch Paul Cataldo a number local dates throughout April, (a sampling follows) or learn more at PaulCataldo.com. • WNCW in-studio performance, Wednesday, April 7, 11 a.m. • South Rock Bar & Grill (830 Greenville Hwy., Hendersonville, 698-2490), Friday, April 9, 7 p.m. • The Saluda Inn (229 Greenville St., Saluda, 749-9698), Saturday, April 10, 8 p.m. • Town Pump (135 Cherry St., Black Mountain, 669-4808), Tuesday, April 12, 8:30 p.m. • Blue Mountain Pizza (55 North Main St., Weaverville, 658-8777), Thursday, April 15, 7 p.m. • French Broad Chocolate Lounge (10 South Lexington Ave., Asheville, 252-4181), Friday, April 16, 8 p.m. • Pisgah Brewing Company (150 Eastside Dr., Black Mountain, 669-0190), Thursday, April 22, 7 p.m. • Luella’s BBQ (501 Merrimon Ave., Asheville, 505-7427), Friday, April 30, 8 p.m.
—Alli Marshall, A&E reporter
Cd Review by: Chip Withrow (Executive Music Reviewer for MusesMuse.com)
10/14/2007
Artist: Paul Cataldo
Album: Home
Website: http://paulcataldo.com
Genre: Country/Folk
Sounds Like: Neil Young, Gram Parsons
Production/Musicianship Grade: 8/10
Overall Talent Level: 9/10
Songwriting Skills: 9/10
Performance Skill: 9/10
Best Songs: Home, Damn You River, Drinkin and Sleepin
CD Review: This is good ol’ backwoods hippie-esque country-folk-rock from … New York City? Paul Cataldo has put together a five-song EP that is as far from city life as I can imagine, and I hope the people listening to him in NYC clubs appreciate him like I do. The loping first track, “Home” has that boots-keeping-time-on-the-porch-boards feel of Neil Young’s “Heart Of Gold.” Paul has an ache to his voice, yearning but not melodramatic. Alicia Van den Berg harmonizes prettily on the high lonesome chorus. The rueful “Damn You River” has a Gram Parsons-like swing to it, and Paul conjures a vivid scene: “The water was calm but nor for long/canoe flipped on a log and she was gone.” Cataldo’s guitar picking is clean and clear throughout the disc, and Bob New does what all good pedal steel playing does to me: makes me feel a good kind of heartache. At times New could be higher in the mix. “To Live and Be Free” is a showcase for Paul’s vocal skill, and he tosses in a too-short electric guitar solo. “To Live” and the bluegrassy “ Right Before (My Very Eyes)” explore the theme of pursuing a dream versus settling down. Cataldo does a George Jones-like (but rootsier) turn on “Drinkin’ and Sleepin’.” Robbie Collins adds rhythmic banjo; I don’t know who plays the blues harp, but it’s a nifty addition.
On Home, Paul Cataldo tells straightforward tales with a rustic, no-frills sound. I can’t wait to hear what he does with a whole album’s worth of material this good.
Paul Cataldo sings songs about things, where most people use things as pretexts for songs. There is some great playing, some beautiful singing, and some nuanced, sensitive, idiomatic performing, but that’s never the point of it: this is a man with something to say. Something warm, generous, sad, majestic, lonesome, gritty, weatherbeaten and true.
Review by Don Zelazny (Americana Roots.com)
9/27/10
I love discovering a talented new singer-songwriter. In this case, a new singer-songwriter reached out to us here at AmericanaRoots.com and offered to send a disc to check out. Check it out I did and dig it I do (say that 3 times fast…)!!
The mountains of western North Carolina are home to Paul Cataldo, who has released his first full length disc, Rivers, Roads and Mountains. Fittingly, the disc was recorded at Quad Studios, the same Nashville studio that birthed Neil Young’s Harvest (Young being one of Paul’s earliest musical influences).
Paul wrote all 11 tunes on the disc, on which he is joined by a slew of Nashville musicians. His voice is very easy on the ears, with just a twinge of southern drawl, perfect for these tunes about, well, rivers, roads and mountains. Its a very catchy disc, with several melodies getting firmly stuck in my head, especially from Diggin For Diamonds (in a coalmine), which is way more enjoyable that the Dora the Explorer theme which usually occupies that spot…
There’s plenty of guitar, harmonica, dobro, steelguitar, mandolin, fiddle and banjo to satisfy any Americana fan. Among the highlights is the fiddle laced opener Mountain Town, a happy ode to Paul’s roots. Of course there is a song about losing a girl (seriously losing, fell out of a canoe..), Damn You River. How about after losing a girl, such as in
Don’t Bet It On The Farm:
It all starts when the crickets go silent
Then you hear the crash of iron on iron
When the sun won’t break the clouds
And your lover stops coming around
Sometimes alone is your safest bet
Like getting clean without getting wet
Rambling around from town to town
With no weight holding you down you’ll never drown
Rivers, Roads and Mountains is a disc I highly recommend from a talented new artist who is really worth checking out. I look forward to Paul’s next disc for sure!
-Don Zelazny
Singing of the Love of Mountain Living
"Rivers, Roads & Mountains"
by Amy Ammons Garza
Fun Things to do in the Mountains is now in it’s 18th year. I came on board when the paper was slightly over a year old, and have been continuously writing about the people who live in Western North Carolina almost every month for 17 years. Sometimes I write five stories a month...sometimes ten...and edit even more! For many of the interviews, I’ve found a theme running through them: the business owners who have come here from somewhere else were brought here as children on vacation, or sent here to summer camp during their formative years. They never forgot their love of the beautiful mountains. So, when they decided to retire, they were drawn back to the mountains they love...and could not just sit down and twiddle their thumbs...so they opened a gift store, a restaurant, a book store...or a place where they could experience what they had been craving most of their adult lives.
And then, there are those who just happen to choose the mountains of western North Carolina for a vacation, or come here for other reasons, and are “drawn” to this green land of plenty and have the courage not to wait until retirement to change their lives. This is what happened with a young country/folk musician, Paul Cataldo, who was recently interviewed on Catch the Spirit of Appalachia’s radio show, “Stories of Mountain Folk.” Paul, a singer, songwriter, has written of his love of the mountains in his album “Rivers, Roads & Mountains,” singing of what many of us have experienced, and captured in only a few words what we feel—just consider....
Going back to the mountain town
City life's really gotten me down
Going back to the mountain town
Cabin living way up in the sky
That mountain air gets me so high
I’m never coming down from those clouds
But it took a lot of “running” before he found it. On the way, he wrote this:
Thinkin’ bout runnin, Oh Thinkin’
Breezing through small towns, clean of my name
Eating in old dive bars,
Singing for my pay
With a depth belying his age, Paul is writing from his heart and using his vast talent to tell his story. Everyone has a gift, a story, a song...and when you’re knee-deep within your song of life, it’s grasp does the leading...and you instinctively know it. Paul sees progress and says:
Old house down the road ain’t there no more
Neither is Charlie’s hardware store
I’m a stranger in my own home town
I ain’t been home in ages
This here road still brings me back home
And back again…
And now, in a cabin deep within the nature of Black Mountain, North Carolina, he rests in his “Mountain Town” lyrics:
Owl calls most every night
While I’m fishing for the cats in the firefly light
Wading in the moon on the water burning white
Crickets scream and it frees my soul
I’m gonna stay till I grow old
When I die please lay me down
In the river below
Take a minute, or five or six, and go to website www.paulcataldo.com, and listen to the wealth of one man whose style and voice carries you full circle through the struggles of lost love, of environmental concern, always making his way back to his love of the mountains. You might want to buy his album, and listen to it while you tour the mountainsides this June...for the mountain laurel is about ready to bloom over the rivers, roads and mountains.
-Amy Ammons Garza (Fun Things to do in the Mountains)
Review for Rivers, Roads & Mountains in Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)
Paul Cataldo's upbeat, rhythmic collection, Rivers, Roads & Mountains plays with all the vigor and snap of a strong cup of coffee. “Going back where the roads are dirt and the girls don’t frown,” he sings on the lead track, “Mountain Town.” Cataldo’s voice is a rich baritone, his delivery direct and unembellished — the sort of warm, confident style that suits straight forward Americana.
But not every song on Rivers is a happy romp through mountain living. Though the album is thoroughly modern, Cataldo takes a turn at age-old subjects. “Damn You River” is a 21st century take on “The Wind and Rain;” “What’s in This Water” offers up a sharply environmentalist perspective from the point of view of one who lives on and loves the land. Plus, the line, “What’s in this water we are drinking, what’s in these thoughts we are thinking” makes short work of the treatment of the natural environment as apt metaphor for the state of humanity.
That Cataldo was raised in Boston seems only a footnote to his deeply rootsy sound. While his own prowess on acoustic guitar and harmonica creates a solid base for the record, it’s the savvy addition fiddle, mandolin, peddle steel, Dobro and banjo that anchors Rivers to a specifically southern sense of place. Appropriately, after a stint as a New York City-based singer/songwriter, Cataldo relocated to Black Mountain, a town which suits his country-tinged flannel shirt and blue jeans aesthetic.
Though Cataldo seems to have settled down (for the time being, at least), “Thinkin’ About Runnin’” is a stand out track on Rivers, with a driving beat, some excellent everyman lyrics (“Bills are everywhere, rents is overdue, I probably even owe some money to you”), a deliciously metallic Dobro part and Cataldo’s own vocals pushing toward the upper reach of his register. Also worthy of space on the jukebox: “I Wish I Didn’t Have a Heart,” an old-school made-for-crying-in-beer country tear jerker delivered in a chunky, up-tempo waltz with perfectly-placed pedal steel.
Catch Paul Cataldo a number local dates throughout April, (a sampling follows) or learn more at PaulCataldo.com. • WNCW in-studio performance, Wednesday, April 7, 11 a.m. • South Rock Bar & Grill (830 Greenville Hwy., Hendersonville, 698-2490), Friday, April 9, 7 p.m. • The Saluda Inn (229 Greenville St., Saluda, 749-9698), Saturday, April 10, 8 p.m. • Town Pump (135 Cherry St., Black Mountain, 669-4808), Tuesday, April 12, 8:30 p.m. • Blue Mountain Pizza (55 North Main St., Weaverville, 658-8777), Thursday, April 15, 7 p.m. • French Broad Chocolate Lounge (10 South Lexington Ave., Asheville, 252-4181), Friday, April 16, 8 p.m. • Pisgah Brewing Company (150 Eastside Dr., Black Mountain, 669-0190), Thursday, April 22, 7 p.m. • Luella’s BBQ (501 Merrimon Ave., Asheville, 505-7427), Friday, April 30, 8 p.m.
—Alli Marshall, A&E reporter
Cd Review by: Chip Withrow (Executive Music Reviewer for MusesMuse.com)
10/14/2007
Artist: Paul Cataldo
Album: Home
Website: http://paulcataldo.com
Genre: Country/Folk
Sounds Like: Neil Young, Gram Parsons
Production/Musicianship Grade: 8/10
Overall Talent Level: 9/10
Songwriting Skills: 9/10
Performance Skill: 9/10
Best Songs: Home, Damn You River, Drinkin and Sleepin
CD Review: This is good ol’ backwoods hippie-esque country-folk-rock from … New York City? Paul Cataldo has put together a five-song EP that is as far from city life as I can imagine, and I hope the people listening to him in NYC clubs appreciate him like I do. The loping first track, “Home” has that boots-keeping-time-on-the-porch-boards feel of Neil Young’s “Heart Of Gold.” Paul has an ache to his voice, yearning but not melodramatic. Alicia Van den Berg harmonizes prettily on the high lonesome chorus. The rueful “Damn You River” has a Gram Parsons-like swing to it, and Paul conjures a vivid scene: “The water was calm but nor for long/canoe flipped on a log and she was gone.” Cataldo’s guitar picking is clean and clear throughout the disc, and Bob New does what all good pedal steel playing does to me: makes me feel a good kind of heartache. At times New could be higher in the mix. “To Live and Be Free” is a showcase for Paul’s vocal skill, and he tosses in a too-short electric guitar solo. “To Live” and the bluegrassy “ Right Before (My Very Eyes)” explore the theme of pursuing a dream versus settling down. Cataldo does a George Jones-like (but rootsier) turn on “Drinkin’ and Sleepin’.” Robbie Collins adds rhythmic banjo; I don’t know who plays the blues harp, but it’s a nifty addition.
On Home, Paul Cataldo tells straightforward tales with a rustic, no-frills sound. I can’t wait to hear what he does with a whole album’s worth of material this good.