The Worcester Phoenix
December 14 - 21, 2000

 Brian Goslow

"Probably harder to find, but worth the search for the smiles it'll bring,
is Zolli's Follies' Santa's Boot Leg (Good Records), 
on which Peter Zolli (with help from his friends in Snakes & Ladders
plus guitarist Julian Russell) does his best Weird Al impression with parodies of Warren Zevon (" A Bottle of Scotch Candy Cane and a Gun") and Nirvana ("Candy Canes for Cripples").
Throw some money  in an envelope and send it to:
Good Records, 48 Tower Street, Worcester, MA 01606."

 Scott McLennan

Local singer songwriter Pete Zolli assembled Zolli's Follies
to release "Santa's Boot Leg" (Good Records),
a dozen song parodies that hit their marks. Zolli's Follies
features Zolli singing and playing many instruments,
with assistance from guitarist Julian Russell,
drummers Keith Prescott and Greg Sullivan,
Bass player Steve Blake and singer Noah Dennis.

This CD pokes fun at both well known rockers and traditional seasonal fare.
For instance, Zolli's Follies takes on the persona
of Cream to do "Santa Claus is coming to Your Love"
and "Tales of Brave Rudolph."

Zolli has a knack for nailing the core sound of the bands he's parodying,
getting frightening close to the drivel of America ("Ventura Christmas").
Such serious-minded bands as King Crimson and Steely Dan
get gently taken down a notch with "Starlight Black Christmas"
and "Christmas in Annandale."

Zolli's record collection must be an  interesting one
as he zeros in on a wide range of characters,
from Tom Waits to Steve Miller to Nirvana
to Ben Folds Five, on this effort.

For information on "Santa's Boot Leg" and other works by Zolli,
contact Good Records, 48 Tower St,. Worcester 01606

The Worcester Telegram & Gazette
February 1, 2001

Scott McLennan

Former Worcester rocker maintains ties to the area 

Music is thicker than blood. At least when the right players come together
and discover not just a chemistry but a mean way of relating to one another.
         Such a bond keeps Bret Hart connected to Worcester's avant-pop/progressive-roots camp,
even though he moved from the city to Eden, N.C., in 1998.
         Since the move, Hart has been recording his songs in a four-track studio in his home
then shipping the rough cuts to Toad Hall Studio in Douglas.
Musicians Steve Blake, Peter Zolli, Bob Jordan, Keith Prescott, Greg Sullivan 
and writer Dave Nader fill in the blanks around Hart's songs and ship 'em back to Eden, 
where the songwriter, guitarist and singer turns into an underground music marketing guerrilla. 

         While this may seem to be a completely inefficient way to make a record, 
the results say otherwise. A recent care package from Hart contained "Decoupage,"
by the band Hipbone; "Bee-Spit Architecture," by Alonzo "Blind Pineappl" Phillips; 
"Incest Is Bad," by Kudzu; "Planting That Seed in Their Head," by Christine Hart
(Bret's wife); a live recording of a 1998 performance at The Above Club
of the improvisational group He Talks to Giraffes; and the rough mixes 
of Hart's new Appalachian-oriented project, Cat's Pants.

         With the exception of the Cat's Pants compact disc, the Worcester crew is all over the other CDs,
each title almost being a collective mask the group dons to conjure a particular spirit. 
"Bee-Spit Architecture" is music in the spirit of Captain Beefheart, 
swaying from jarring noise scapes to melodic missives from one's mental meltdown.
Hipbone is a rock band full of "Rubber Soul"; Kudzu is a swampy-sounding ensemble 
with a sinister edge. Each project has its own identity, but as Hart explained in a recent interview,
they all have a common goal. "Finding order in chaos" is how Hart described the creative process
he began exploring through folk music in the 1970s. 

He settled into the Worcester area around 1990 after a stint in the Navy, where he served in Korea. 
Hart easily fit into the small, but hearty band of musicians in and around Worcester
that put creativity ahead of outright commercial appeal (although it would be wrong 
to label this stuff inaccessible). To that group he brought flexible and playful skills 
as a songwriter, delivering material that could be harsh, scab-picking stuff one moment, 
then wonderfully sweet and tender the next. All of it is a bit out there, but it is never phoned in 
or sloppy. With Hipbone, formed in 1993 with Zolli and Prescott, 
and as a participant in countless other musical projects, Hart found a good thing.

         "These are among my best friends," he said. "And, in terms of just accompaniment,
Keith, Pete, Greg, Steve and Bob Jordan have had the greatest exposure to my songwriting.
I trust them. And they are all multi-instrumentalists and have a bit of enthusiasm
about doing these projects. Believe it or not, my costs are actually pretty low doing things like this."

Blake, who runs Toad Hall and fronts the band Snakes & Ladders with Noah Dennis on bass 
and Sullivan on drums, acknowledged that these snail-mail collaborations are strange,
but they have reinforced his love of the Hart's style. 
"You don't realize how much you care about people until they go away,"
Blake said. "Bret is one of my favorite songwriters. And you've never seen him
put down someone for their creativity and attempts to express it." 

Hart, too, realized there was something special in Worcester, 
which is why he released the He Talks to Giraffes live CD, a wildly played night of jamming. 
"He Talks to Giraffes is one for the library, something to show what was going on there. 
There was not just Orpheus in Worcester and that's it," Hart said, referring 
to the Worcester band that gained national attention. 

Hart is going strong in North Carolina where he is working on the Cat's Pants project
and organizing a guitar compilation called "Delicate Furies," which will be sold as a fund-raiser 
to replace the basketball hoops at the middle school where he teaches 8th-grade English.
(He's also creating a new musical character, Wade Coldwater,
to explore guitar-and-drum space rock, but that's another story).

         To get a handle on Hart's CDs,
go online to http://pages.about.com/oddmusic/oDDmUSIC.html,
or drop him a ine at 609 Morehead St., Eden, NC 27288.
         Hart makes his CDs to order with customized covers and artwork. 
"I keep it personal," he said. "I'm not disappearing into the capitalist wasteland."

In the musical genre of Christian rock, the emphasis has long been on the former
rather than the latter.  Pete Zolli balances the equation, though, with his band Aslan
and the compact disc, “Large Letters.” Without watering down the message 
of his Christian faith, Zolli and crew have crafted a batch of songs that will appeal 
to music fans who get their pop fix with the likes of The Beatles, Elvis Costello and Nirvana.
     While that alone is noteworthy, Zolli's approach with Aslan is even more interesting 
as he made the band a working model on Christian/non-Christian relations.
Aslan's bass player, Steve Blake, is a practicing witch.
     “I bet you Carman doesn't have a picture of his bass player 
wearing a pentagram in his CD,” Zolli said while pointing out the group photo of Aslan
in the liner notes to “Large Letters.”

     Drummer Keith Prescott, who attracted Zolli to the Christian faith a few years ago, 
said Aslan not only serves as an evangelical vehicle but challenges
preconceived notions about people with a deep religious faith.
     “The Christian record-buying public may not buy this record
knowing there is a witch on it.  But I think the monastery trip is all wrong.
Christians need to be out in the world. And you can still love your friends,” Prescott said.
     Zolli followed up, saying: “Only a presumptuous guy would say he can figure out
how someone looks in the eyes of God.”  For his part, Blake simply laughed 
and referred to himself as “the black sheep” of the band, but added that his work with Aslan
taught him much about the Christian faith his longtime brothers in music have adopted.
     Zolli has been a presence on the local scene for more than a decade, 
playing in a variety of solo and band projects. His decision to stick with players 
he's comfortable with regardless of religious beliefs paid off
on “Large Letters” as the band chemistry crackles.

     Zolli's songs on the record, named after a Biblical passage 
where the Apostle Paul tells the Galatian church 
he is rendering Christ's message in large letters as opposed to the tiny, 
neat script the scribes of the day used, center on his belief that he has found truth. 
Big truth. Bigger than “Jeopardy!” truth.  Many songs -- from the punky “All That's Holy”
to the rousing “The Truth Is Out There” -- display Zolli's enthusiasm for the Christian message. 
Other songs, such as the psychedelic “Hound” and propulsive “Needed a Friend,” 
are sly calls to faith. And “The Non-Contradiction Rag” 
is perhaps the most entertaining bit of theological wrangling you'll come across. 

     The disc has 11 songs, but started out as a 15-song project
(all of it recorded in the charmingly cluttered confines
of Blake's Toad Hall Studio in Douglas). Zolli sent the 15-song “review disc” 
to about a dozen people and asked them to pick their favorite tunes. 
(Full disclosure -- I participated in the process).
     “I gave the disc to as many different kinds of people as I could, 
from people in my church to Steve's friend Charlie
who probably wants to punch Jesus in the nose,” Zolli said.
     The response from outside ears surprised Zolli. Some songs he thought came out flat 
ot great response and other tunes drew evenly divided responses; 
half the listeners loved them while the other half hated them. 

In addition to taking an unconventional approach
to tracking the disc, Aslan took this project straight to the Web for sales.
     “Large Letters” is available online at www.mp3.com/goodrecords. 
The disc can be purchased or downloaded and the curious can sample tracks before buying.
     “I've given up on ever making money off a record. At least this way I think we can get the music 
in front of a lot of people,” Zolli said. “They just have to know where to look.”