The Deep Blue Dream

August 16th 2010
Headed over to Lovin' Cup next, not because it was close, but because The Deep Blue Dream was debuting new stuff off its new album, "Intrinsically Intertwined," which finds the band progressing in different directions without forsaking its initial "casserole of soul." The Deep Blue Dream is made up of musician's musicians and is talented enough to play practically anything. I came in on the band's second set, where it pulled off George Clinton's "Testify" with a cool harmony that started just south of the intended note before slithering and sliding up on key.

- City Newspaper - Frank De Blase

January 24, 2011
Janis Joplin would have been 68 years old this past week if she hadn't boarded the Adios Express so young. She burned hot, fast, and ultimately out, but remains the quintessential jumping-off point for so many female singers who have the blues, sing the blues, and give the blues. I caught Deep Blue Dream at The Club @ Water Street Wednesday, January 19, as part of a show celebrating Joplin's birthday. The band was as soulful and versatile as Big Brother and The Holding Company ever was as it grooved and ground the boogie beneath Lauren Faggiano's big, bad, bold, beautiful, bodacious pipes. But the band's set was more of a juxtaposition than a mere tribute or send-up. Instead of simply belting out the legend's tunes, Faggiano wove her own jive-filled songs into the set. The highlight was the ballsy, Kansas City-style shouter "Hoochie Mama," a tune penned by her dad, in which she channeled Bessie Smith.

- City News Paper - Frank De Blase

Sure, playing on that huge stage as a warm up act for last weekends Rochester music fest was cool. But for memorable nights, Lauren Faggiano instead chooses this past St. Patrick's Day. "We were all crammed in a little, tiny window in the front of Beale Street," says the lead singer of The Deep Blue Dream. "It was the first time we had our sax player with us, the first time the public saw us complete." Your next chance is Saturday when The Deep Blue Dream celebrates the release of it's debut, self-titled album, again at Beale Street Cafe. Maybe they can open the windows this time, so drummer John Paul Nawn can have a little elbow room. The 27 year old music therapist at Heritage Christian Services, Faggiano leads The Deep Blue Dream with a big, bawdy voice. Most of the albums songs are originals, written by her, Nawn (he contributes a reggae food tribute), bassist Ken Schumacher, or guitarist Alex Lasher, who helped complete the band by bringing in his wife, Faith Lasher, on Sax. But on a couple of songs she didn't write is where Faggiano's voice really hits. Theres "Hoochie Mama" by her Dad, Vince Faggiano, himself a rocker a decade ago as the lead singer of Lightning, a band of cops who played anti-drug functions. And "Big Fat Daddy" in which she sings the praises of making love to a plus sized fellow. "I heard it from a woman out in Kansis City," Faggiano says. "She let me sit in on her set while I was there for a music therapy conference...." The song dates back to the 20's reworked by bluesmen until a blueswoman, Irene Reid, got a hold of it and turned the gender on the guys. Like her bandmates, Faggiano is new to the blues. "I have been writing songs since high school," she says. "I was obsessed with Tori in high school, Tori Amos. Then Joni Mithcell, Bonnie Raitt, Susan Tedeschi. I still write in that style sometimes." And it's a long way off from the the purpose of music therapy, as Faggiano applies it to developmentally disabled adults. "It's a question of Eastern and Western music," she says, reaching for a comparison. "What could be atonal to a western ear is beautiful to an eastern ear. Somebody screaming could be really hurtful to somebody's ear, but to me, thats what they need to do." For more on the band check www.myspace.com/thedeepbluedream

Written by: Jeff Spevak - Democrat and Chronicle

Lauren Faggiano and her big pipes are back with a funky, bluesy quintet named The Deep Blue Dream. It's a little smooth in spots, but it still pumps and roars nice and raw on the inside. Just dig the way the opening cut gets the dusty-needle-through-a-gramaphone treatment. There are a coupla curve balls, like when the band gets a little reggae. This albums swings nicely with an accessibility that'll surely draw folks deeper into Faggiano's music, and perhaps a little deeper still into it's origins. Lauren Faggiano and The Deep Blue Dream's CD release show happens Saturday, August 4th, at Beale Street Cafe.

Written By: Frank De Blase - City Newspaper

Rochester five-piece, The Deep Blue Dream is a cool combo of jazzy blues, funky rock, and powerful vocals. Lead singer, Lauren Faggiano belts it out on their jamming debut, backed by a more than competent rhythm section. See them in the live setting at Smokin' Joes on Friday, September 21st, and then hear them do double duty on Saturday, September 22nd, with a gig at Barnes and Noble in Pittsford, and later at Richmonds.

Written By: Michelle Picardo - Freetime Magazine

"Bitch can sing!" ~ Brother Wease
- 96.5 WCMF

The writer of the band profile on The Deep Blue Dream's myspace page definitely likes the group and food. The profile uses culinary metaphors to describe the Rochester band's musical mélange of blues, funk, rock, folk, jazz and even bluegrass. The Deep Blue Dream's music embodies a "casserole of soul" and an "ice cream sundae of funk," says the Web site. So now I really want to check out the band's show at the Dinosaur next week, and I have a hankering for five-course meal. Led by singer and viola player Lauren Faggiano and consisting of a quirky group of long-time musicians, The Deep Blue Dream plays Thursday, Jan. 17 at 10 p.m. at the Dinosaur Bar B Cue, 99 Court Street, 325-7090, free, all ages. - City

The 28-year-old is one of two women in the Rochester five-piece band The Deep Blue Dream. Faggiano has played WR2R for four years, and makes her second appearance at WR2R with The Deep Blue Dream at 5 p.m. on Sunday, July 13th

1) How did you get involved in rock music? ~ I've always sang and played guitar and piano, and I went to school for music therapy... I started doing more rock stuff when I was doing a folk-singer thing at this bar called Tommy's out in Newark... and after playing ther I just started playing with more and more musicians and discovered different sides of my voice that I never really realized I had.
2) So how did you find your band, The Deep Blue Dream? ~ I wanted to do something with a blues feel, more of a rock edge. And I had a bass player, who is somebody that was on my first CD... and we used to work with him. Four out of the five of us have experience working with people with developmental disabilites, so we met a lot through that. And the other one is a friend of a friend... And I pieced it together.
3) Do you make it a point to do it every year? ~ Yeah, I enjoy it. I think Makr Legott's got a really great vision, and every year it seems to get a little bit bigger.
4) How would you define that vision? ~ Just supporting women and their music and their art, and doing it in a place where women's suffrage was founded I think really solidifies our growth as a sex.
5) Have you ever run into troube as a musician, being a woman? ~ I've gotten some funny looks when we've come in as a band. I've had people come and say "Oh, I thought you guys were going to be lame and you rocked."
6) What, besides the obvious reasons makes WR2R special? ~ It's not something to make money, it's not something to further anybody other than just representing women in a positive way. - Insider

Lauren Faggiano's big, beautiful pipes front this funky, bluesy quintet. It's a little smooth in spots, but it still pumps and roars nice and raw on the inside. Initially making the scene as more of a singer/songwriter, Faggiano's music always burned hot. But now with Deep Blue Dream in full stride, it's not only hot, but sweaty too.
And to be honest, it's not so much blues as it is bluesy in the way it sneaks up with subversive boogie and clobbers ya. I mean, really, who wants music merely handed to them?
- City News Paper

Great blues wth a fine female vocalist! - The Dinosaur Barbeque

The Deep Blue Dream
We often hear about the healing power of music. Singer, keyboardist and violist Lauren Faggiano is intimately acquainted with it, as a music therapist working with adults with developmental disabilities.

Nor is she alone. Faith Lasher, saxophonist for Faggiano’s band, The Deep Blue Dream, is also a music therapist; and for that matter four of the five members of the band have experience working with the developmentally disabled. That made it particularly meaningful to Faggiano when the band got to open for the singer Phoebe Snow, who cared for her severely developmentally disabled daughter at home until her daughter’s death last year at 31.

“We got to open for Phoebe Snow, which was amazing for me,” Faggiano said. “Some people have compared my vocal quality to hers, and to actually open up for her ... She’s a really great woman who’s dealt with a lot of tragedy.”

Like Snow, whose music has encompassed jazz, blues, folk and rock, The Deep Blue Dream draws from many musical streams. Faggiano’s own influences encompass singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell, blues/R&B elder stateswoman Etta James and the Southern rockers Allman Brothers; drummer John Paul Nawn brings a fascination with reggae; guitarist Alex Lasher brings a love for jazz. According to their MySpace bio, they’ve even been known to throw in a bit of bluegrass. And each member of the band — which also includes bassist Ken Schumacher, whose work with Faggiano on a solo project helped lead to the band’s founding — adds vocals to the mix.

“Each individual member of the band has a time to shine — it’s not just about Faith or me or Alex,” Faggiano said. “I think it’s an eye-opening experience ... seeing a group that has that much cohesion.”

And the stylistic mix of the band’s sound has made it a festival draw — this year’s schedule includes music festivals in Seneca Falls, Rochester (Park Avenue) and Utica as well as Canandaigua — as well as a club and bar band.

“Just playing so many different venues, having so many different people follow us — young, old, different cultures — it’s so neat to see so many different people enjoy it,” she said.

The Deep Blue Dream plays at 3 p.m. Sunday, July 20.
By: David Wheeler - MPN Now Canandaigua