Thursday, May 10, 2012

Ladies and Gentleman, Tony Lucca Is Back!

When we have our television on, its usually for background noise. The only time I really pay attention is when I want to watch the news or The Big Bang Theory is on. One night, as I was surfing the 'net, I heard the name Tony Lucca mentioned on television. Growing up a fan of the Mickey Mouse Club, I knew that name and immediately looked up. I said to Erich, "Tony Lucca is on TV!" He had no clue who I was talking about, so he didn't really care. As I listened to him briefly speak about his life since MMC, I was very excited to hear him sing. He chose Ray LaMontagne's "Trouble." As soon as he opened his mouth, I had chills, followed by tears in my eyes. Watching the reaction of Lucca's wife and son, as all of the judges "said yes" melted my heart.

Since that evening, I haven't watched The Voice. I started training for the 5K, I had school, and other things going on. I basically forgot about my rediscovery of Tony Lucca. Then, tonight, I saw a video of Adam Levine joining Tony on stage, singing the Beatles' "Yesterday."


Chills, again. Now, I should be writing a research paper that is due tomorrow that is barely started, but I started watching videos on the NBC site, listening to Tony's voice and studying his performance. This, my friends, is a true artist. On the urging of Levine, his Voice coach, Lucca took on former mouseketeer Britney Spears' 1999 hit "Baby One More Time" and made it his own. 

Now, the links I've included are to the iTunes singles of the songs, but in all honestly, the studio does Lucca's voice no justice. He truly shines on stage, during live performances. Need more proof? Check out Tony's performance of Bonnie Raitt's "I Can't Make You Love Me," back in 2009, from the comfort of a friends living room.


When you head over to iTunes, make sure to check out Lucca's music library - the singer/songwriter has released a number of albums with his original work. I played a a couple tracks off each album while doing some academic research, but I will need to give each album a good listen from start to finish over the weekend. I don't want to pass judgement, good or bad, on something that did not have my full attention - it would not be a fair assessment.

Over the last fifteen years, I have seen more musicians perform live than I can count. But musicians that can put on a great live show with vocals on point, plus engage the crowd? Well, I can name a few off the top of my head: Jason Mraz, Lauryn Hill, Blink 182, Dave Matthews Band, John Mayer, Maroon 5 and Phantom Planet, and No Doubt. I'm sure there are more, but as I said, this is off the top of my head at 1:45am, and I still have to write this damned paper. From what I've seen, Lucca would definitely make the cut.

I would love to see Lucca perform live. Not with the touring Voice circus act (no offense to any other artists from the show, but those tours are always the worst), but something along the lines of an intimate gig at a smaller venue. Hell, he would even fare well as an opening act for Mraz, LaMontagne or Maroon 5 (make it happen, Adam!). I would love to say he could do his own major headlining tour, but I think he needs another year or so to put another album out and show the rest of the world what they are missing.

As Lucca said in an interview, this is now the second chapter in his life. I'm happy that he has had the opportunity to show the world what he can do, and I am definitely glad that I was given the opportunity to rediscover him.

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