Sparks flying
Singer-songwriter Carl Cacho releases his second CD, "Spark"
By SUE KLASKY
TOWN ONLINE STAFF WRITER

COURTESY PHOTO
Carl Cacho celebrates the release of his second CD, 'Spark' at Club Passim in Cambridge, Thursday, April 18.

When listening to singer-songwriter Carl Cacho's new CD, "Spark," it sounds like he might be from Texas. The tunes have that rootsy-storytelling feel of Lone Star songwriters Guy Clark and Townes Van Zandt. Yet, Cacho isn't from Texas, though he's been traveling there for the past several years.
Cacho, 33, has been performing professionally for five years, and is becoming well-known as a songwriter. His narrative style incorporates imagery and straight-ahead stories with blues, country, rock, and folk. Many people have covered and recorded his tunes, including national acts such as Jimmy LeFave and Jack Hardy; and local performers Kevin So and Stephanie Corby.
"[Performers] hear of me through other people playing my tunes," he explained. For example, LeFave discovered Cacho's "Save Me a Seat" after seeing So play it at a show. LeFave is even on the new record, singing a duet with Cacho on " Bordertown, " that actually sounds like it was made for LeFave.
Cacho is thrilled to have his songs performed by others. "When I started playing, I played songs I liked. When I hear [singers] covering my tunes, it's such an honor that someone took the time to learn it. It's a great feeling.
"I'm definitely not that protective of [the songs]. When other people take my songs, it's fun to see how they stretch [them] out, push them a little bit. [The tunes] take a life of their own. I've never heard a version I didn't like and I've never cringed."
Cacho, a New York native, moved to Maine at age 13. His mother had a large folk collection and he gravitated to Joni Mitchell and Bob Dylan.
He started learning to play guitar as a freshman in college, and performed at open mikes in New England. During his senior year, while on a visit to his girlfriend at Boston College, they went to the Nameless Coffeehouse in Harvard Square. On the bill was Ellis Paul, playing one of his first gigs. Cacho was immediately impressed. He said it was an "introduction into the singer-songwriter thing." He realized then, that if he wanted to do wanted to do music full-time, there was a subculture to support him.
Back in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where he was a graduate student studying social work, he started playing at venues, and became a regular at The Ark. Cacho later returned to New England permanently, to work, perform and write songs.
Cacho tries to be organized about his songwriting. "I set aside time every day in the morning, or before going to bed. Songs pop out at different times." Sometimes he can be working on one, and another comes.
"I know where they come from. I write all the time, in the car, listening to the rhythm of the windshield wipers. Usually the music comes first. The music sets the mood for the words, like the pasta that the meat sits on."
Trips to Texas and the Kerrville Folk Festival have been big influences on his craft. He feels that "hanging out" and meeting people there have made a huge impact in his songwriting. And he often gets "song kernels" while traveling between New England and Texas.
He said that all his tunes are from experiences that have happened to him - things that stick out like a sore thumb. "I'm not good at making stuff out of the blue, I need a basis of truth, though I make some liberties with them."
Yet, "Writing songs I like is a mystery. On 'Spark,' I really like all the songs. I've written a lot that I don't like."
Cacho co-produced "Spark" with Neale Eckstein at the latter's studio in the basement of his Sudbury home. Starting out, there wasn't a concept for the CD. The two had almost 20 tunes from which to choose including some positive love songs, and some about family.
As the CD took shape and the tunes were whittled down to 12, Cacho discovered that there were themes running through the songs. They concerned "exploration, the darker side of life, growing up, restlessness, and the ambiguities that confront people every day."
He also thought a lot about the order of the songs for the album. He knew he was beginning with "The Devil in Me," and ending with "Save Me a Seat," his tribute to the great bluegrass musician Bill Monroe, but it took a while to figure out what went between the two songs.
Besides having LeFave as a guest, Cacho gathered several friends known in acoustic circles to help out on "Spark." Kris Delmhorst played fiddle and sang a duet on "One Step Too Far;" and Mark Erelli, Ellis Paul, David Goldfinger, Rob Laurens, Steve Sadler, Eric Schwartz, Kyle Shiver, John Anderson, Kevin So, Christopher Williams, Stephanie Corby, Danny Click, Will Landin, Mark LaPointe, Mieka Pauley and Oliver Steck, all added their talents to the project.
Currently, Cacho performs part-time, playing 40-50 gigs a year, as he has a day job. He's a social worker at Pentucket Area Early Intervention in West Newbury, working with children birth to age 3. He would like to do it full-time. He's getting more of a national presence as the record is getting a lot of airplay across the country and he hopes to build on it.
But he enjoys playing in New England and New York. "There are great venues in a three- to four-hour drive. I play almost every weekend and sometimes during the week. When I was playing in Michigan, there were only one or two venues to play, and I had to travel. Here, there are a ton of places I can play, and then I can go home."
He doesn't have a manager, so he does all the work to promote his career - getting gigs, promoting the shows, building his mailing list. And even though he's not on a label, he feels he can be successful distributing his CDs on the Internet on sites such as folkweb.com. It's nice to be on a label, but he's discovered that by selling over the Web, he can get the product directly to the consumer and see where it's going. He recently sold CDs to people in Germany, Holland and Australia.
It's all good enough for him. "I can control the songs," Cacho said. "My focus is to continue to write songs and find venues to play."
Carl Cacho appears at a CD release show at Club Passim, 47 Palmer St., Cambridge, Thursday, April 18 at 8 p.m. Some of the guests on the record including guitarist Kyle Shiver and bassist John Anderson, as well as other surprises will be "rocking the house." Cacho's special guest is David Goldfinger. Tickets are $10 for members; $12, non-members. Contact: 617-492-7679; for more information on Carl Cacho, visit www.carlcacho.com