Michael Fracasso

Dirty Linen

This is an excerpt from the print edition of Dirty Linen #130 June/July 2007).
The full article is in the magazine, available on newsstands, by subscription, and at the Dirty Linen webstore.

Michael Fracasso

Feeding Body and Soul

by Annette C. Eshleman

Even Austin, Texas, gets chilly in early January. Conducting an interview outdoors may not have been such a wise idea. But with a heater glowing nearby, outdoor seating at a popular South Austin café was comfortable. Over a cup of hot tea, Michael Fracasso talked about his childhood, music career, songwriting, and a brand new album. All the while, his dog waited patiently nearby.

When he is not on the road, Michael Fracasso is a stay-at-home dad who cooks dinner and picks up the kids from school. A traditional dinner hour then becomes the focal point of the Fracasso family's day. "I try to keep that tradition going," he said. "I grew up with a family that sat down and ate at the dinner table, and I try to keep that going. It's probably the most important aspect of our family life." And, he added with satisfaction, "The kids like it." He and his wife, Paula, have two young children.

Fracasso grew up in Mingo Junction, Ohio, the small steel-mill town located along the Ohio River that served as location for the 1978 movie The Deer Hunter. His parents later moved the family a few miles north to Steubenville, Ohio, a bigger town than Mingo Junction, yet still largely dependent upon the steel mill for survival. Fracasso's father worked in the mill, and Michael eventually found employment there as well, working summers during his college years.

"I did not like working there," Fracasso declared emphatically. "I remember the first day I got there, they put me on a crew called the Labor Gang. I had to wear a rubber suit and go down into a grease pit, in the middle of summer," he said, wincing at the memory. "They put me in the blast furnace after that, which was even worse," he recalled, noting that seasonal workers usually received the least desirable assignments.

Although Fracasso remembers his employment at the steel mill with a degree of scorn, he also appreciates the harsh beauty of that way of life. He added, "Sometimes when I'm driving and I'm back in that area, sometimes something inside me…"

Searching for words, he continued with an element of nostalgia in his voice, "I liked the anonymity of that kind of work, the invisible-ness of it, and being able to observe things that were completely foreign to me," he said. "I do have a fondness for industrial settings. I think they're beautiful, in a way."

Fracasso's parents, Italian immigrants, spoke Italian at home, and he considers himself to be moderately proficient in the language. He and his two sisters grew up in a close family, surrounded by tradition and with a close connection to their heritage. He attended Catholic school and later went to college, earning a degree in environmental science. All along, however, music remained his passion.

Even as a child, Fracasso was creating music. "I remember writing a song as a little boy, just off the top of my head while we were playing a game," he reminisced. "I don't remember the song, but I remember the feeling of, 'Wow, those words just all came out of me… they just came out!' At the time I was probably 8 or 9, and I remember doing it, and I remember the experience of how it felt."

"When I was in eighth grade," Fracasso continued, "I discovered folk music." He was captivated, and he convinced his father to buy him a folk guitar. Soon he began to take lessons. He wrote songs constantly throughout his school years and performed at local coffeehouses.

Finally, at the age of 26, Fracasso made the decision to move to New York City to pursue a career as a musician. "Ever since I bought a Bob Dylan record, I felt like I wanted to move to New York," he said. "It just struck a chord in me… there was something about it that was, you know, the whole poet on the street. It made a big impact on me… musically, as well.

[cover #130]