Local guitarist and composer Carl Baldassarre started to dabble on guitar when he was only 12. But he didn’t begin to take playing more seriously until a high school teacher suggested he do so in a rather dramatic fashion.
“I took a Humanities class at Euclid High in 1976,” says Baldassarre one afternoon from his lakeside house in Madison Township. He plays a special 50th anniversary show at 7 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 29, at the Treelawn. “He was a great, great teacher. For our project that semester, each one of us had to pick something in the arts and humanities and present it to the class. Some people wrote poetry, and other people did paintings. I decided to write my first song.”
The teacher wanted the students to check with him as soon as they made some progress. Baldassarre took what he describes as his “feeble attempt” to the man’s office and was shocked by the response.
“I went in his office with a borrowed acoustic guitar and played him the song, and he looked at me and said, ‘This isn’t a class project. This is a career,’” recalls Baldassarre. “That was a cementing, purposeful moment. It all changed, and I went out and started a band. I went hard and started getting serious.”
His teacher wasn’t wrong. Baldassarre’s band Abraxas became locally successful.
“I remember getting to No. 7 on the WMMS playlist and playing at the Agora, and [owner] Hank LaConti was so supportive,” he says. “And I wasn’t backed by any of the local gatekeepers. I had independent management.”
The group played a WMMS Coffee Break concert and “did the typical thing in the van.”
“We were dirt poor,” says Baldassarre. “Fifteen bucks would be a great day for each of us. Our whole life was in a truck.”
So when that truck got stolen at the Youngstown Agora, where the group had opened for Michael Stanley Band, Abraxas came to an end.
“The truck had our lights, sound and gear,” says Baldassarre. “It got stolen, and that was tough to come back from. We couldn’t go out on the road. Naturally, the chapter closed.”
In the wake of that band’s dissolution, Baldassarre started studying music and he continued to write. He got heavily into progressive rock and formed the group Syzygy. It became a success both regionally and internationally.
“That was a band that allowed me to stretch my compositional craft,” says Baldassarre. “We put several albums out. One went to No. 1 on the progressive rock charts in Germany. Progressive rock followers are really unique. They are people who are so devoted and wait with bated breath for every album to come out.”
After putting music on the backburner to work in finance, Baldassarre quit his day job and started to explore a range of musical interests. He developed a Led Zeppelin tribute show and produced several YouTube videos during which he analyzes the band’s music from a composition perspective.
“When covid hit, I got the itch to play live again,” he says. “I had the urge to go back to where it all started. I grabbed some buddies and put together a four-piece and played from top-to-bottom Led Zeppelin II. That evolved into another band called the Soul of Zeppelin with members of Tower of Power, Tears for Fears and Postmodern Jukebox. I booked a lot of shows, and it got away from me. I became known as the Led Zeppelin guy. But it was a good run.”
He also met the members of the local string group Opus 216 and began collaborating with them.
“That gave me an opportunity to play and perform my classical pieces and that ensemble became the Rock Orchestra,” he says of working with Opus 216. “We play a combination of classic rock and original shows.”
The Rock Orchestra now plays a special classic rock show that pays tribute to the music from 1965 to 1975.
“Instead of playing songs that people want to hear, I get to play what influenced me,” he says. “I play songs like ‘To Sir with Love’ by Lulu all the way to ‘Burn’ from Deep Purple.”
The upcoming show at the Treelawn will start and end with the hard-driving, Abraxas song “Pretty Poison.”
“And I’ll play everything in between from classical and progressive rock and musical theater pieces,” says Baldassarre, who’s released 11 albums of original music in a variety of genres. “I live this dichotomy. I play nostalgic music with the orchestra, and I still do all-original shows. The 1965 to 1975 program is great, but I also love doing my own music. There’s nothing like that feeling. It’s a scary feeling to play your own music and be vulnerable.”
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