Mario Monerosso: From Italy to Memphis

Mario Monerosso: From Italy to Memphis

Sicilian guitarist making noise on the local music scene

news@theeveningtimes.com

Mario Monterosso has played music gigs all over the world and visited cities in the United States from coast to coast.

But of all the cities he has visited, none of them gave off a vibe quite like Memphis did. The 46 year-old Rock ‘n’ Roll guitarist from Catania, Sicily, knew right away that he had found the place where he wanted to make music.

“I saw a lot of places and a lot of different cities,” Monterosso said. “But Memphis! I felt a different energy in Memphis.”

Three years ago, Monterosso went back home to Rome following a US tour with Tav Falco, lead singer of American psychedelic Rock ‘n’ Roll group Panther Burns, and decided to quit his job as a court clerk and move to Memphis to play music full time. He had been playing gigs as a fill-in guitarist in different clubs in Rome part-time, but was torn about whether he should make music his full time career.

“When I got back to the office in Rome I said, ‘Mario, you’re 43. You’ve got to decide. What do you want to do?’” Monterosso said. “I quit my job. I sold my house. And I moved here to Memphis in late July 2016.”

Memphis was quick to embrace him. He sat in on jam sessions then soon found himself in demand to play guitar for well known local artists like John Paul Keith, Gary Hardy, Brandon Cunning, Dale Watson and others in clubs on Beale Street and all around Memphis.

“I would read in the paper that there was going to be a jam,” Monterosso said. “So I would go. I started playing jam sessionsand met a lot of people. The very first gig I got was with John Paul at Lafayette’s Music Room. I had played Lafayette’s with Tav. Then John Paul began to call me pretty often. After you start playing, you start meeting other musicians.”

Monterosso said he was surprised to see that Memphis didn’t have a bigger Rock ‘n’ Roll and rockabilly music scene. Memphis is, after all, the home of Elvis Presley and Sun Records, the studio that gave the world Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, and Jerry Lee Lewis.

“I expected to find a huge Rock ‘n’ Roll and rockabilly scene in Memphis,” Monterosso said. “But nobody was really playing that kind of Rock ‘n’ Roll.” Monterosso said rockabilly is huge in Europe, and Europeans know more about American music and Sun Records and Elvis and rockabilly than most Americans do. “To me, the weirdest thing is that Memphis doesn’t have a rockabilly festival,” Monterosso said. “There are rockabilly festivals all over the word that are all inspired by Memphis music. And Memphis doesn’t have one. It’s so weird.

People here don’t realize how important Memphis is on the music scene all around the world.”

Monterosso fell in love with all things rockabilly when he was a young boy.

His father died when he was ten years old his sister had a rockabilly boyfriend who listened to that music and became a role model to him.

“The very first tape that I had was from a British radio show called Radio Memphis,” Monterosso said. “It was all Memphis music, especially the rockabilly stuff. The first song I heard was ‘Put Your Cat Clothes On’ by Carl Perkins. I loved it.”

When the rockabilly revival reached Europe in the 1980s, his sister and her boyfriend took him to a concert where he heard Vince Mannino and he was blown away by what he heard.

“He came out on stage with this big pompadour and sideburns and with his Gretsch guitar — he was a real Teddy boy. He was singing ‘Boogie Woogie Country Girl’ and I said ‘wow! I want to do that,’” Monterosso said.

His sister, who was a classical pianist, taught him his first chords on her acoustic guitar and the basic “boogie woogie” line. Little by little, he learned all of the American rockabilly songs from Sun, and by age 14 began playing school parties and dances. From there, he branched out into blues, jazz, funk, and country.

“I was pretty curious about all American music,” Monterosso said. Monterosso left Sicily at age 30 and transferred to a job in Rome as an excuse to concentrate more on music. He made a name for himself as a go-to guitarist for bands looking for someone who could play roots music.

In 2014, he got a message from a friend who asked him if he would like to play with an American music artist named Tav Falco, who wanted to record an album in Rome and then tour around Europe. Monterosso had seen Falco in concert in his hometown in 1989.

“I said, ‘Are you talking about Tav Falco and the Panther Burns?’” Monterosso said. “She said yes.

So I said, ‘Let’s do it.’” Monterosso said Falco changed his life. He had been struggling inside with himself over whether to keep his day job, or to quit and make playing music his full time career. It was after he got back from a cost-tocoast US tour with Falco that he finally decided to make the career change and follow his dream to play music. “When I met Tav I was already fighting myself inside,” Monterosso said.

“I’ve tried all my life to find a balance between the two things — work and music. But sometimes you need to choose who you are.”

Monterosso keeps a busy schedule playing anywhere from three to five gigs a week. And although he could be playing in bigger cities, Memphis is where he wants to be.

“When you go to New York or Chicago or L.A., those places are great places. But it’s always run,run, run. They don’t have time to build anything else,” Monterosso said. “In Memphis, it’s a musical family. And I think part of it too is that I am a man from the South because Sicily is in the south. I don’t know why, but all over the world, the South is always different. It’s the people, the music, the food. I love the people.”

Monterosso said he still can’t believe his good fortune that a kid from Sicily who grew up listening to Johnny Cash and Carl Perkins and idolizing rockabilly music would someday be playing his favorite kind of music — and getting paid for it.

“I love Memphis,” Monterosso said. “It has really embraced me. I am living my dream, having fun, and getting paid for it. I’m lucky. I got more than I expected in Memphis in my three years here, I am very grateful.”

By Mark Randall