Album Notes

Palm Beach Post article - 10/1/04

"An Everyman Singer"
by Bill Meredith

If you were searching for a stereotypical singer/songwriter with the right "look," you might pass by New Jersey native Jason Colannino. If you were trying to guess his occupation during a conversation, his understated demeanor might fool you as well.
The Boynton Beach resident doesn't play the starved, tortured model role that lands singer/songwriters in music videos and on magazine covers. He doesn't have the seemingly requisite overactive ego, either, since he understands the importance of not taking himself too seriously. What the everyman singer and guitarist does have is an ability to memorize a thousand cover songs, and an uncanny knack to mimic the singer/songwriters who composed them.

"Harry Chapin is absolutely my primary influence," Colannino says of the late New Yorker (whose concert in the 1970s was the first Colannino ever attended). "Neil Young would be second; third, lately, would be Paul Simon." Colannino practically knows the full catalog of each of these artists, plus the entire sphere of Crosby, Stills & Nash (and that's with or without Young).

Add James Taylor and Cat Stevens; stir, and you have the unique blend displayed by the 10 originals on Colannino's new CD, Piece of the Sun. He recruited me to play drums on seven of the songs, which were recorded at Dream Factory Recording Studios in Boynton and engineered by Corey Dwyer - a member of the local bands Crazy Fingers and The Grass Is Dead. Dwyer also plays Hammond organ on one track. The disc also features lead guitarist Andy Stein, vocalist Kim Colannino (Jason's wife), violinist Ginny Williams, and saxophonist Troy Solis. Colannino even plays piano and bass, crediting the latter to his alter-ego, Joe Jersey.

Colannino has worked in South Florida steadily since moving here from New Jersey in 1990, recently adding gigs at rehab facilities and group homes for Lake Worth-based nonprofit organization Inspirit. In addition to all of his above-mentioned versatilities, he can also captivate as a solo artist as well as in duos, trios (Acoustic Remedy features Colannino, Jones and Stein), and the full-band situation provided by his self-titled group.