Tonio K defines undeserved obscurity

By Tom Long / The Detroit News


    Let us now ponder those who get lost in the shuffle, the great undiscovered artists who somehow never break through to the commercial surface. Many times they are just too good for their own good.
    Most longtime pop fans have their own secret loves, whether it be Steve Forbert or Be Bop Deluxe, Jules Shear or Rachel Sweet. And every once in a while one of those faves perseveres and finally conquers, building a cult they can live on. Witness the resurrection of John Prine in recent years. Maybe there is a God.
    But more often these artists simply fade into undeserved obscurity.
    Meet Tonio K. He defines undeserved obscurity.
    And meet him you can, because the last album by this great unknown artist of the '80s has finally been released after seven years in limbo. ˇOlé!, produced by T-Bone Burnett way back in 1990, has just been released by dinky Gadfly Records in Vermont. In fact, Gadfly is releasing the entire Tonio K catalogue (there are four other albums, beginning with 1978's stone brilliant Life In The Food Chain). Run out and buy them all.
    I know, I know: What the heck is a Tonio K?
    Obsessed with his own admittedly strong sense of humor, driven by devils that refused to let him write simple love songs, and unsparingly caustic while giddily romantic, Tonio K was and probably somewhere still is one damn fine songwriter who's also a pretty good singer. He rocked hard at times, didn't at others, and had a tendency to record with very good players who seemed inspired by the fact that they were getting paid to perform with a guy who was part goofball, part genius.
    ˇOlé! is pretty typical for a Tonio K album. The cover is a photograph of a bullfighter being absolutely overwhelmed by a bull, and that pretty much says it all. In "Stop the Clock" our boy is frustrated by time's passing, while in the strutting "Time Steps Aside" he stares in awe at innocent beauty. In "Maybe There Isn't" the introspective Tonio questions man's dismal history -- "Now I don't need to change the world tonight/ But I'd sure like to know/ If it's too late to ever get it right." This is a man with no answers, but plenty of good questions.
    ˇOlé! also includes honest-to-goodness nods to protest songs ("That Could Have Been Me," "Hey Lady"), a blatant attempt at commerciality ("I'll Remember You") that was way too smart to succeed, and a tender love ballad called "What A Way To Live" that starts out with the the typical Tonio lines "Well, I hear you haven't learned a thing yet, Doll face/ I hear you still haven't learned to shut your mouth."
    Tonio K never did shut his mouth during his recording career. The early albums are hurdy-gurdy electric frenzied affairs, in his midperiod he reached for an audience, in his final efforts with Burnett he fell into a solid, more spare groove. But at all times Tonio seemed to think that music mattered, that pop could be more than a series of recycled trends set to a marketing scheme.
    Such delusions are common among great undiscovered artists. In "Pardon Me For Living" the resigned K-man sings, "I don't know what you want/ Don't know what you believe/ I don't know how to act anymore/ Or how long I can keep juggling."
    Well, his act may be over at this point ... but, boy, could this guy juggle.
    The Tonio K catalogue is now available at better record stores everywhere or through Gadfly Records, P.O. Box 5231, Burlington, VT. By the way, the president of Gadfly Records is a guy named Mitch Cantor, who is from Detroit. Small world, huh?
   
   

Recording Review


    Tonio K
    ˇOlé!
    Gadfly Records
    *** 1/2
    {Worthwhile}

Reprinted by permission from The Detroit News, October 6, 1997