Blues Saraceno

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Blues Saraceno
Born (1971-10-17) October 17, 1971 (age 52)
Hartford, Connecticut
GenresHeavy metal, hard rock, blues, gothic country
Occupation(s)Musician, composer, producer
Instrument(s)Guitar, bass guitar, keyboards, piano, vocals
Years active1989–present
Websitebluessaraceno.com

Blues Saraceno (born October 17, 1971) is an American rock guitarist, composer and music producer, currently residing in Los Angeles, California. He was discovered by Guitar for the Practicing Musician magazine at the age of 16, which assisted him in releasing instrumental recordings on an independent basis.[1]

Saraceno's high profile as a gifted guitar virtuoso and musician opened the doors to an early career as a first-call guitar sideman and session musician. Saraceno is most often recognized from his time playing with Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker (

Poison
. Saraceno's early success in the music industry would eventually blossom into a career in producing and composing for television and film.

Early life and career

Blues Saraceno was born to musician parents, who introduced him at an early age to several musical instruments. He started to play guitar at the age of nine. When he was thirteen, he broke his elbow when he fell from a go-kart and asked the doctor to position the cast in a way that allowed him to remove it from his sling to practice guitar during his recovery. When he was nineteen, Saraceno moved to Los Angeles to seek a career in music.

Career

When Saraceno was still a teenager, his manager sent a

record deal. Saraceno released his first album titled Never Look Back
in 1989.

Saraceno won an audition with

session guitarist
and landing many high-profile equipment endorsements.

In 1993, Saraceno joined the band

Poison as lead guitarist and songwriter after Richie Kotzen was fired. After a South American tour which included the famous Hollywood rock festival in Brazil, Saraceno recorded the album Crack a Smile with the band. However, Capitol Records decided to shelve the album, releasing the 1996 compilation album, Poison's Greatest Hits: 1986–1996, instead.[2]
Still, the album featured two of the new songs recorded with Saraceno.

After some time, Saraceno left the group amicably and was replaced by one of the band's former guitarists, C.C. DeVille. In 2000, Capitol finally decided to release the Crack a Smile album under the name Crack a Smile... and More!. The album features fifteen tracks recorded by Saraceno.[3]

After his departure from Poison, Saraceno met the vice-president of Advertising of

Fox Television
, who was a fan of Saraceno's earlier instrumental work. This resulted in Saraceno working on soundtracks and songs for several television shows and films.

In 2000, Saraceno founded the band, Transmission OK. Saraceno also worked as record producer for the band, which was signed to Beyond Records, and was distributed by BMG. After a brief US tour, and lackluster support from the label, the group disbanded and Saraceno continued to work on television and film, as well as his session work.

Saraceno's has done session work with everyone from Ziggy Marley (Dragonfly) to Melissa Etheridge (Lucky), earning him a reputation for being a "go-to guy" for many of Los Angeles' top record producers and engineers.

Saraceno has also produced for artists including Scott Caan (Hawaii Five-0, Oceans 11), Eric Balfour (24, Haven, Chainsaw Massacre) of Fredalba, Lindsay Price (Beverly Hills 90210, Lipstick Jungle) and Anthony Michael Hall (Dead Zone).

Saraceno's greatest success has come in the field of television and film. His television work credits include WWE, CBS, NBC, ABC, FOX, Disney, Discovery, UPN, MTV, MTV 2, VH1, USA, TLC, Comedy Central, Telemundo, SCI FI, SPIKE, E! and BRAVO. A more detailed list can be found on his website (www.bluessaraceno.com). He has commented on how it is not uncommon to have several commercials running in different countries throughout the world, all at the same time, using the same piece of music.

Saraceno did three tracks for Megas XLR. These tracks were Blood Shot, Berzerker and Ro-Sham-Bo.

Saraceno's "Save My Soul" is the soundtrack for the History Channel's mini-series The Men Who Built America.

Saraceno's "Evil Ways" song was also used in various videogames trailers such as

History Channel's TV series, Biker Battleground Phoenix
.

WrestleMania XXIX match and another promo featuring The Wyatt Family in an episode of WWE SmackDown
.

It was also used during a promo for

Emma
's video packages leading up to her return at the post-Wrestlemania RAW in 2017. WWE also used his single "Bad Man" for Jeff Jarrett's Hall of Fame video.

Discography

Solo

  • Never Look Back (1989)
  • Plaid (1992)
  • Hairpick (1994)
  • The Best of Blues Saraceno (2000)
  • Dangerous (2016)
  • Dark Country 4 (2016)
  • The Devil You Know - EP (2018)

Blues, Electronic blues

Cher

Never Hold Us Down

Taylor Dayne

Kingdom Come

Poison

Gorgeous George

  • Gorgeous George (1999)

Transmission OK

Ziggy Marley

Megas XLR

Melissa Etheridge

The Infinite Staircase

Lita Ford

  • Time Capsule
    (2016)

The Biggest Band In The World

Nine One One

  • Wicked Gonna Come (2018)

Guest appearances

  • Return of the Worm, Todd Grubbs, (2011), Grubworm Music
  • Double Talkin' Jive – A Hard Rock Tribute to Guns N' Roses, (2008), Versailles
  • Liquid Piece of Me, Sergio "SERJ" Buss, (2007)
  • Too Fast for Love: A Millennium Tribute to Mötley Crüe, (2007), Versailles
  • Studs n' Sisters, Chris Francis, (2006), Up to Speed Music
  • Go with What You Know, Dweezil Zappa, (2006), Zappa Records
  • Just Like Paradise: A Millennium Tribute to Diamond David Lee Roth, (2005), Versailles
  • My World, Kang Ino, (2005), Dream On
  • Glitter 4 Your Soul, Rikki Rockett, (2003), Slave to the Rhythm Productions Inc.
  • A Tribute to Aerosmith – Let the Tribute Do the Talkin', (2002), Mascot
  • Tribute to Van Halen (2000), Triage Records
  • Automatic, Dweezil Zappa, (2000), Favored Nations
  • Aerosmith Tribute: Not the Same Old Song & Dance, (1999), Cleopatra
  • Guitar's Practicing Musicians Vol 111, (1994), Guitar Recordings
  • Guitar's Practicing Musicians, (1993), Guitar Recordings
  • Sammy Says Ouch!, Randy Coven, (1990), Guitar Recordings
  • Truth in Unity, Chris Catena's Rock City Tribe, (2020), Grooveyard Records

Sampled songs

References

  1. Allmusic
    . Retrieved April 26, 2010.
  2. ^ "Living Legends: music info on Poison". 2011. Archived from the original on October 5, 2011.
  3. ^ "Poison Greatest Hits review". Allmusic.

External links