ROSETTA PEBBLE: Clear Across Summer

Rosetta Pebble

Clear Across Summer

© 2005 Steven Gulian and Eric Frakes (837101099134)

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Music that sticks to the roof of your heart, and also gets your toes tapping. Sweet acoustic ballads interspersed among power pop. Stradivarius meets Stratocaster; sarcasm meets serenity; summer meets fall. Rosetta Pebble unravels the riddle.

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Rosetta Pebble is actually Steve Gulian and Eric Frakes, two multi-talented musicians from metropolitan Detroit. In performance, Gulian and Frakes play acoustic guitar and sing lead vocals by turns, with the other handling the percussion and background vocals. The one-of-a-kind drum set is a work of art in itself. This collection of hand percussion from far-flung parts of the world is arrayed on iron stands created by several metal sculptors. Although the band is often joined by guest musicians, the core Pebble sound can stand on its own. Both singer/songwriters daylight as elementary school teachers in Grosse Pointe, Michigan.

On CD, Rosetta Pebble's music shines, thanks in part to the creative input and expert production of Indianapolis music legend Tim Brickley. Brickley is a fantastic musician singer/songwriter whose infectious hooks and melodic solos can be heard on a variety of instruments throughout Clear Across Summer. His Indianapolis recording haven, Hit City, is where Rosetta Pebble also recorded their first CD, "Stories That the World Once Told". (Brickley's latest CD, "Everything That Ever Was" can be found here on CD Baby, or at Timbrickley.com.)

Rosetta Pebble began as a two-man songwriting collective in 1999. The members, Steve Gulian and Eric Frakes, had been searching for a forum for the acoustic-based songs they'd been writing individually on hiatus from other bands. Rosetta Pebble proved to be the ideal project for each, providing them a stage to present their musical ideas and carefully wrought lyrics in an uncluttered manner, showcasing the integrity of the songs themselves.

The group first formed in Barcelona, Spain during the summer of 1999. Longtime friends from the Detroit area, Gulian and Frakes met up overseas that summer, each with a guitar and a notebook filled with song ideas. Gulian had been traveling westward following a year teaching in Indonesia, and Frakes had been on holiday in Germany. The duo continued throughout Europe that summer, writing songs and performing wherever they could. Upon their return to Detroit, Rosetta Pebble was born.

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  • Clear Across Summer resonates with melodic and lyrical mastery
    author: Craig Brass

    No one likes to be pigeon holed, but in deference to brevity I'll do it here. Rosetta Pebble is a blend of James Taylor and Bare Naked Ladies with a touch of Counting Crows tossed in. The band's latest CD, Clear Across Summer, is musical story-telling at its finest. Songs such as Another Place's Rain, Summer's Mine, Wobbly on the Wire and Things accentuate Rosetta Pebble's strength of creating thoughtful lyrics and inspired melodies. This is the band's second CD, and perhaps the most impressive thing is that they were able to lay down 20 solid songs. No sophomore jinx here. Beginning with From Now On and culminating with Where Do We Go From Here (feel free to read into the subplot of these titles), they've resisted being derivative; instead striving to do something unique with each cut, and for the most part succeeding. For instance, Knuckle Boy is a song with an instantly catchy tune and impossibly clever lyrics about a double-jointed school boy, the type of kid who bends his thumb back to his wrist. We all knew one in school; we just never thought to sing a song about him. Back in the day Rosetta Pebble's music is the type that would have found its way onto Album Oriented Rock radio. Now sophisticated listeners have to claw, scratch and scrounge to find inventive new music like Clear Across Summer, but it's worth the effort.

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