“I’ve been all over Chicago, and there’s nothing like being on Colfax,” Charly Fasano asserts. “The most bizarre things happen there. When I-70 was built, Colfax was left behind like an abandoned child, and it’s been acting out like an abandoned child ever since.”
Fasano isn’t trying to be poetic — it just happens. For nearly 18 years, he’s been reading and writing poetry with the same enthusiasm that he’s been consuming punk rock. When he started performing and recording his poetry with luminaries from the Denver music community five years ago, those two passions came together and he discovered the exhilaration of collaboration. After a brief period of exile in Chicago, the poet/photographer/filmmaker/performer returned to the Mile High City earlier this year, and he couldn’t be more excited to be a Denver artist again.
Charly Fasano and his twin brother, Vincent, landed in Evergreen, Colorado, when they were in high school, and soon found themselves knee deep in Colorado’s music scene, promoting rock shows and working with storied venues like the Climax Lounge, the Raven and the 15th Street Tavern.
At the same time, Charly started getting more excited about poetry. Like many college freshmen, he was seduced by Jack Kerouac and Hunter S. Thompson, and soon found himself studying writing and occasionally submitting works to literary journals. But it wasn’t until years later that the writer started getting serious about performing and recording his works with area musicians.
“When I turned 30, I was like, ‘I think if there’s a time to really do something and go for it, it’s now,” he recalls. At first, Fasano tried what you might called “performance poetry by proxy.” He photocopied his poems, shoved them into manila envelopes, stamped them with the name “The City Mouse” — a sobriquet given to him by frontman — and surreptitiously distributed them in bars. Fasano then grabbed a drink and an inconspicuous spot in the bar to watch readers’ reactions.
Not long after those early public poetry experiments, Fasano went on tour as a roadie for Drag the River and Memphis-based , and the musical collaborations began. “The Stories of the City Mouse” — including the poetry of Charly Fasano, the music of Lucero and the artwork of Vincent Fasano — was released on vinyl in 2006.
Fasano went on to record his poetic observations, poignant stories and witty verses with improv rockers , Snodgrass, , , multi-instrumentalists Ryan Honaker and , OVERJOID (a side project of Lucero’s Roy Berry), as well as with his brother, Vinny, and his girlfriend, cellist Anna Mascorella of (and now of Crystal Mouse Collection).
“Seems like everybody I know is a musician,” Fasano chuckles. Earlier this year, Fasano made his recordings — previously released as cassette tapes — available as free downloads from . Listening to those recordings, it isn’t hard to hear what distinguishes the artist. Unlike most performance poets, the City Mouse doesn’t gesticulate, enunciate or draw a lot of attention to his syllables. When you listen to his recording of “Smiles That Go Ding” or “Bar Bar Anthology,” it’s like overhearing the guy next to you at the bar as he whispers lies and confessions into his empty glass, while the band plays the closing strains of its sad set. And though the poems collected in those recordings suggest a man who has led a hard, rusty life, Fasano insists it’s simply art.
“People forget poetry is imagination. If I’m using the word ‘I,’ it’s not necessarily me. If I write a sexy poem, it’s a composite of 40 women I’ve met in my life. I’ve never gambled, I’ve never fucked a hooker and I’ve never been in a back alley bar fight,” he insists. “I’m usually trying to get out of the way so I don’t spill my beer.”
Fasano isn’t just trying to avoid an errant punch. He’s also trying to get out of his own way as an artist.
“I want to be more photographic and less subjective. I want to observe,” he explains. “I’m trying to get away from being a personal pronoun poet.”
As part of that move from confessional to observational, Fasano has begun focusing on other art forms as well. On Feb 25 and 26 at the Phoenix Gallery in the basement of , the City Mouse will display a collection of his films, animation, Polaroid photographs, linocut and woodblock prints, and will also perform poems taken from his forthcoming book, “Next Analog Broadcast,” which will be released on Sunnyoutside Press on the 25th. Musical accompaniment will, of course, be provided by various noteworthy Denver musicians.
The show, called “Deviants and Devices,” grew out of two years that Fasano spent living in Chicago while Moscarella was in graduate school, but really began to take shape when he returned to Denver last summer.
“I read at the UMS two days after I got back from Chicago,” he remembers, “and I couldn’t believe how many bands there were, and I didn’t recognize any of their names. All the guys I work with are filmmakers, artists, musicians and DJs. I think people are more accepting of what I do now. It seems like Denver is more collaborative and there are just more places to do stuff.”
For Fasano — who has had a beer thrown in his face during a reading and has been called “poet faggot” more than once while performing — the opportunities to create and collaborate in Denver mean more support than ever for his multidisciplinary approach.
“It’s exciting to be back because I’m collaborating with my brother and Fast Geek Boutique is happening,” he says, speaking of the local-centric art gallery/record store/fashion outlet/bookstore that Vincent Fasano and Hella Thready fashion designer Tina Jolliffe opened earlier this year. Fasano sees the boutique as emblematic of the artistic energy in Denver today, an energy that supports musicians, poets, filmmakers, visual artists, writers, actors and countless other creatives.
“I did a reading with Brian Polk (founder of the ) at the Suburban Home anniversary weekend in the basement of 3 Kings Tavern at 6 o’clock, and there was a really good crowd” Fasano says with a grin. “If we’d done it six years ago, there’d be five people there.”
Charly “The City Mouse” Fasano will release a new cassette tape, “The Oprah EP,” on Jan 22 at Fast Geek Boutique at 2298 Clay Street. His new book, “Next Analog Broadcast,” comes out Feb 25 on Sunnyoutside Press. His multimedia art show, “Deviants and Devices,” will occur on Feb 25 and Feb 26 at the Phoenix Gallery at 60 South Broadway, in the basement of 3 Kings Tavern.
Eryc Eyl is a veteran music journalist, critic and Colorado native who has been neck-deep in local music for many years. Check out every Monday for local music you can HEAR, and the every Friday. Against his mother’s advice, Eryc has also been known to . You can also follow Sorry, Mom.
