Without a Net

The music of Without a Net is created by five unique musicians, each bringing his or her own style to the group.  The band is led by Frank Primeggia, vocals, keyboards and songwriter.  Frank's influences on the keyboards are Alan Price and Ray Manzarek.  His vocal styles are melodic, yet soulfully edgy, and his influences are too numerous to count.  Chris Oliver plays the drums and his style is heavily influenced by the great jazz drummers of the last 50 years.  Jeff Thornton is the guitar player who has combined the styles of Jerry Garcia and Bob Weir to create a special tone to his work.  Dan Howald plays bass and is the band's resident savant.  Dan can play most instruments and brings a steady yet funky groove to his bass lines.  Francesca Rose, our youngest member, plays acoustic guitar and sings.  She is currently studying music at the College of St. Rose and brings a sweet, harmonic quality to the bands songs.

The band started as a Grateful Dead, New Riders of the Purple Sage, Rolling Stones cover band -  common musical ground shared by the players among the many and varied musical genres they each have performing experience with.  Their catalog covers each phase of the Dead's career from early psychedelic to blues to their later more polished years.  The band members all embrace the Dead's philosophy of musical expression and love of the Americana folk influence in the early rock era.  

Frank, who has previously recorded and released his own works, wanted to craft his originals to mirror the signature sound that the Without a Net ensemble had developed, a vibe which is heavily influenced by stylings of the bands they cover.  To that end, he rearranged much of his existing catalog to meet that goal, and found inspiration to pen some new originals along the way.  In working with the other players, a fresh yet familiar sound emerged and Frank has adopted a new avatar: The Disco Cowboy.

 The origins of Disco Cowboy came from a comment made to Frank on how he dressed.  It was meant as a putdown, but Frank instead embraced it as badge to display proudly, and was inspired to write the song.  Disco Cowboy embraces the notion that each of us is unique and talented in our own ways.  The cowboy is the quintessential America icon that represents the rugged individualist -- someone who is self-reliant, doesn't compromise his ideals, and sets his own path.  The Disco part of this unexpected juxtaposition of terms is equally evocative, and is intended to say "I can have fun, I can dance and groove with the best of them, the music is in my soul." In a way, we are all Disco Cowboys.