Minnesota-based singer/songwriter Tony Cuchetti is following his debut album, Hid It On The Sly (2020), and performance album, Live From Drum Farm Studio (2020), with 2023’s Freer Street, a collection of original songs punctuated by a couple of beloved cover tunes. Cuchetti returned to home turf at Drum Farm Studio in Menomonie, WI to record, joined by fellow Minnesotan Erik Koskinen, who produced and played both rhythm and lead guitar on the album, as well as co-writing many of the tracks.
Together, they gathered friends and seasoned musicians Blair Krivanek (lead/rhythm guitar), Nick Salisbury (bass), JT Bates (drums/percussion), and Gregg Inhofer (Hamond B3 organ) to complete the tracks in a collaborative environment. Wanting as raw and as spur of the moment a vibe as possible, the majority of the album was recorded live with everyone in one room and had minimal overdubs in post-production.
The album’s title refers to a presence on the album, never too openly stated, but imbued into the music itself, that of Cuchetti’s late grandfather who lived on Freer Street in Detroit, where much of Cuchetti’s family hails from.
Cuchetti shares: “There isn’t much directly written about him on the album, but he was a huge influence on my life. About a year ago, I found this old black and white, sepia-toned picture of him that I’ve had forever and I thought it would be an outstanding album cover.”
The experiences of performing as a touring musician from a young age and playing Minor League baseball after college also shaped Tony Cuchetti’s life and contributed to the drive that fires him today.
Cuchetti explains: My parents are both still active musicians and music teachers. I am number 8 of 10 children. My parents decided to start a family act in the late 60s, and started playing malls, fairs, conventions, and even Vegas in the era of the Jackson 5 and The Osmonds. That’s pretty much how I grew up, on the road for ten or eleven months a year. It was a pretty tight-knit production, and we were self-contained as a family.”
Storytelling is key to Cuchetti’s way of thinking, in the vein of singer/songwriters like Kris Kristofferson, Guy Clark, and Townes Van Zandt, who combine compelling details and situations with music that creates an intrinsic connection with fellow human beings. When the Minnesota State Arts Board awarded him an “Inspired Collusion-Fine Art Interpreted Thru Song, Advancing Artist Grant” in 2019, Cuchetti accepted 200 art submissions of various media from local artists, picked twelve, and proceeded to write songs inspired by those art submissions. The results were the pieces we find on his album, Hid It On The Sly.