‘Lemme take you on a little trip across the universe,
It may be one disturbing ride, but believe me things could be worse.’
–Frank Cotolo

American folk music reaches back into the history of the country and rips through the fiber of the common man. From its important function as the voice of the downtrodden during the Depression, American folk evolved into a hip association with The Beat Generation in the 1950s. Then, it was the conduit for social protest in the early 1960s; a status eventually commercialized with folk-rock renderings that reached a broader audience after the British Invasion. Throughout these decades, American folk music offered many different, unique voices and styles.

"Folk Me" addresses over 60 years of American folk music in presenting a documentary-style journey through the genre. It uses the voices and styles of folk-music’s evolution, with one unique twist-all of the tracks on "Folk Me" are original songs, written and performed by Frank Cotolo (and some guests).

The songs on the CD will be presented in chronological order of their historical perspective. Gritty, simple tracks evolve into sharper echoes of the New York folk scene and slide into the electric-folk genre Dylan all but created at the Newport Folk Festival.

Lyrically, the songs explore the emotions of the eras and are wonderful reading on their own. The words move, as was written about Bob Dylan early on in his career, from being "offhandedly humorous to deadly earnest, sometimes within a single line." This is why we are posting the lyrics to each of the songs presented at EvO:R from the project; they are surely the stars of this documentary.

As far as Frank Cotolo goes, this is a broad departure from the kinds of music he is known for creating. Certainly, the simplicity of the project’s music is a stark turnaround from his more personal work, which is production-oriented. In "Folk Me," Frank explores and wallows in the guts of melody and lyric, divorcing his personal approach to songwriting and calling on the spirits of the fundamental giants of musical folklore to do his bidding. It is, though, oddly enough, a step forward for Frank, 52, the songwriter. As was written once about older artists: "Old masters sometimes pare their statements down stylistically to attain the mythic or universal - their work gets simpler, easier."

"Folk Me" is one old master’s tribute to the literature of music, which is why it is described as John Steinbeck wrote of Cannery Row-"a poem, a stink, a grating noise, a quality of light, a tone, a habit, a nostalgia, a dream."