The Musician
Painting and music have always gone hand in hand for me, and I have pursued both for nearly my entire life. I have chosen to make my living primarily from painting, but continue my exploration of roots music as a parallel. On guitar, it has always been early Country blues and Ragtime fingerstyle guitar focusing on the styles of people like Robert Johnson, Blind Blake, Reverand Gary Davis,Tampa Red and others. The originals I write are closely related to this style also. On banjo, I have focused on the early Southern Clawhammer styles, particuarly West Virginia and Roundpeak style Banjo. On the Ukulele, I seem to be stuck playing a lot of the Tin Pan Alley music and tunes I heard growing up. I'll soon be trying to finish up a new solo record incorporating all of these sounds. I also plan to start posting MP3 clips of some of the new recordings very soon on this page so you can keep in touch with what I am doing in this area.
I have played solo shows all over the Northeast and the South, into Colorado and also Italy, mostly in the Tuscany region. Over the years I have opened shows or shared the stage with such notable musicians as Taj Mahal, Dave Van Ronk, David Bromberg, John Hammond, Elizabeth Cotten, Pat Donahue, Brownie McGhee and Sonny Terry, Jimmie Dawkins, Dan Hicks, J Geils band, Nickolette Larson, my good friends Paul Geremia, Paul Rishell, Richard Smith and John Mooney, among many others. I got to record 3 CD's with the band Roll and Tumble with which I played with for nearly nine years.The last one we did, called “Rattle that thing" also features John Mooney on some cuts.
I was the recipient of three awards at the New Hampshire guitar competition for three consecutive years taking 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place in those competitions and securing a recording seesion from the 1sr place award at Fishtracks recording studio in Portsmouth New Hampshire. That was used to record the 1st record with the band Roll and Tumble
The first solo CD was titled Rattle that thing, and was recorded in Tom Eaton studio in Newburyport Ma and includesr New England musicians, Jon Ross, Justin Quinn, Curtis Haynes, Scotty Shetler, Joyce Anderson and others. The last 2 CD’s (Full Throttle and Don’t Forget It) were recorded in Nashville at Richard Smith’s Tunesmith Studio and feature some stellar musicians like Dennis Crouch on bass, Rory Hoffman on piano, Josh hunt (percussion), Andrea Zonn (vocals), Shad Cobb (Fiddle), Stuart Duncan ( fiddle and mandolin) and Richard Smith (guitar). There is a mix of solo cuts as well. A few cuts were recorded in my own studio in Florida and feature Barry Johnson (guitar) and Henry Hartmann (bass).
Check out the Events page for upcoming shows.
Prodigal Son
I just recently completed working with Dick Spottswood on the the musical liner notes for a compilation record of the late Reverend Robert Wilkins entitled "Prodigal Son".
Protobillly
In 2019, Frank Corso participated in the compilation of popular music that dates back to the 19th Century. “Protobilly is an in-depth exploration of the reverberations of American popular songs of the 19th Century and the Turn-of-the-Century through early country music in the 1920s and 1930s. Just as much of the early jazz repertoire came from 19th Century and early 20th Century popular songs that the pioneer jazz musicians had grown up with, the early country music recording artists adapted many of the same kinds of songs and tunes” (Hoyle Osborne, 2019). Read full article
Custom Corso
I have dabbled with building my own instruments since the early 80's and have built a number of my own guitars and banjos. In recent years I have been building a few more under the watchful eye of Julius Borges, who as the owner of Borges Guitars in Littleton Ma. probably builds some of the finest instruments on the planet. I completed buiding my 11th guitar (a Rosewood 000 cutaway style 12 fret) and play that consistently in most of my shows. I more recently finished a Brazilian Rosewood Adirondack spruce guitar in the style of a Gibson 185. There is also a Gibson Style J35 that has become a favorite of mine, and that may well be my last one I build. InI just don't seem to have the time for building any more. I think I would rather spend my time playing when I am not painting. I also have an Artist relationship with National Resophonic Guitars in San Luis Obispo which are still my favorite instruments of all to play, and I work hard to promote their guitars on all of my shows. I will always have at least three of these on stage with me at any show. They have built me several exquisite instruments . I also play Collings guitars, National Guitars, along with guitars that I built myself. I use Fishman Electronics exclusively for both live shows and recording.
I completed a design for National guitars a while back on an M14 guitar for a Namm show, featuring a custom one off paint job that I did for them. Starting with an M14 guitar which is a deeper body, it was finished in a midnight blue color including the neck and peghead, I then painted the scene on the guitar to keep somewhat in the tradition of the originals with palm trees and a serenading musician in a boat, but with a more modern twist. The entire color scheme of the guitar was to reflect a moonlight scene.The body was then clear coated and assembled by National Guitars and featured in the Namm show in California. The guitar has been sold, but It is featured on their website under the Custom Guitars section and is called the "Corso Custom" resonator guitar. View the images below.
