Tractor Trailer

Tractor Trailer’s “4th of July” possesses a true summers-spent-beneath-the-boardwalk feel: squeaky Styrofoam coolers stocked with cold beer, tuna sandwiches infected with beach sand, burned-out bottle rockets on the shoreline. The new record stirs warm breezes blowing in off the Atlantic, and delivers a summer crush that won’t fade by Labor Day, resounding and looping endlessly in our memory banks until old age. First loves are hard to overcome. “4th of July” is impossible to forget.

Few bands can accurately transfer their onstage energy and grit onto a record. The studio has a way of softening light, and often dims edges and subtleties that bands work so hard to achieve. Musicians oftentimes play it too safe, and anyone who’s spent time in a studio can attest that it’s usually because they tense with the scrutiny of the studio’s unforgiving microscopic lens, or get caught in a money crunch and can’t afford to experiment. The results are sometimes sterile.

Tractor Trailer is different. Their long-awaited release on Red Fez Records is an indelible snapshot of their live sound, a perfect facsimile which arrests emotional contours, melodic weaves, and concrete rhythmic textures without robbing the band’s personality. Collectively this lot creates mountainous musical landscapes, and all play solely for the song. Among the arm’s length of guests, saxophonist Don Davis creates a myriad of bright colors and dusty moods, while organist Scip Gallant lends heat-etched whorls with his B3. But again, the emphasis is on the song, not the solo. Only occasionally does someone cut loose, but when they do, the results are serious. For example, Tony Rombola’s (Godsmack) solo on “All Day Long” burns like a roman candle, littering the night sky with sparks and smoke, a la Jimi.

Like many great records, “4th of July” also puts a sunrise-to-sunset, arc of life design on display; the songs are strategically sequenced to conjure many moods and feels. It opens with the record’s finest track, “Killer 27”, a flat-out funeral party song about the untimely deaths of rock Gods Cobain, Morrison, and Hendrix. “Killer” is armed with hand claps, rib-sticky harmonica lines, strategically placed guitar licks and singer Coby Carlucci’s captivating voice, part Elvis Costello, part Otis Redding. The song typifies Tractor Trailer’s newfound sound: Motown crossed with Americana, whereby melodies are inescapable, words smart and cloudless. The record ends in the muted twilight of A Hard Case for Misery, a song that aches with heartbreak, echoes of a summer gone by too fast.

Carlucci was raised in rock and roll. His parents are both musicians (his mom plays on the record), and from the start he watched their bands perform. Thus Carlucci was surrounded by, and subsequently permeated with, melody and song from an early age. This remains invariably evident in regards to his deft songwriting ability, as if handed a mission from an elder generation to breathe life back into the corpse known as modern rock. With this in mind, “4th of July” is an emotional rescue, a high-energy affair dressed in a sweaty wing-collared shirt, a true callout to a time when writing good songs still mattered.

Long live rock. Long live Tractor Trailer.
- Fosters Daily Democrat

Coby Carlucci is an artist of honesty and Industry. He’s also a man steeped in self-imposed aloneness. Crestfallen, he relinquishes personal bliss in exchange for soulful, painful depth and keen, naked observations of life and love.

With his newest release, TEXARKANA, Carlucci invites his audience on a trip through the Republic and through his mind; spotlighting the alienation that has dominated the land and his own psyche. The CD explores another facet of American life. The violent undercurrent, the class warfare; Americans pitted against fellow Americans.

The Musicianship on this effort is top of the line. Guitarist John Farias, guitarist Charles Bellerose, bassist Brian Ristola and drummer Dave Pierog create the tightest of grooves, never to overplay or underplay. Carlucci has assembled a group of musicians who comprehend his plight and reflect that insight in their playing. They perform with great economy, skillfully assisting Carlucci to elevate these eight, original, well-crafted songs to a musical place where they can be properly showcased.

“The Heart of America” is a lament about a bygone era in the USA and an uneasiness about it’s future. Here, Carlucci’s voice is powerful, direct and stirring. The edgy subject matter of his songs can be either heightened and/or softened by his versatile, eerily calm delivery. “Whiskey Stool” is a perfect example of how he can masterfully turn a phrase. Every word on this track is measured and deliberate.

The title track is an autobiographical romp. It gives the listener a glimpse into the heart and theory of Carlucci’s youth. From the struggle to survive boyhood, a man whose strong, brash exterior masks a warm heart and a faithful empathy for his brothers and sisters. With TEXARKANA Carlucci takes his deepest forlorn feelings and turns them into art and rock; a task that is both noble and daunting.

- Northeast Performer

Coby Carlucci delivers that great Americana Rock singer/songwriter style that screams with great modern roots rock appeal. There's a classic feeling to this music that is mixed so nicely with it's high in substance songwriting style. Most of the songs are guitar driven rockers that say a little more than the stereotypical spew that most have become accustomed to in the rock genre. That's always a nice way to make people pay attention, and I don't see that Coby has a problem in that area. This album is definitely one that gives you what you expect. The music is real, it's energetic, and it has substance. - The Global Muse

The music expertly comes alive and always retains its alternative rock flavor in the disguise of modern, mainstream melodies. It's thoroughly upbeat, chasing Coby's solid vocal that comes in somewhere between loud smoothie and slacker. One listen to the 70s-like arrangement (mixed much better) and you know at once this is spring and summer music for the great, great outdoors. Very fine, often great, work. - Music Dish

An impressive first musical outing by Carlucci. Enlisting the help of a fine array of local musicians, he has come up with a sound that crosses Skynyrd with REM, which takes the simplistic riffage of AC/DC and puts it in a southern bayou setting. The playing on the disc is extraordinarily tasteful, with slow shuffles and uptempo rock numbers coming to dreamy, bluesy choruses; solid rock sounds with Carlucci’s clear, strong voice lying on top of it all. His lyrics are intelligent and well written, often approaching poetic. The ideas are fluidly and fluently brought to fruition. - Fosters Daily Democrat

New Hampshire native Coby Carlucci is the perpetrator of some smoldering American roots rock and roll on his new disk Texarkana. Carlucci delivers everything you’d expect and more with intricate compositions that take on a life of their own. Carlucci’s got one of those voices that grabs you up and keeps you mesmerized with his flawless intonation and tone. He’s also a clever songwriter, capturing the essence of his observations with keen ability. All in all you won’t hear a better local CD this year than Coby Carlucci’s Texarkana…it’s worth its weight in gold! - Metronome