Last year, after winning the New England Music Awards, New Haven singer-songwriter Frank Viele started to realize how many people had been cheering him on all along.
“I posted about it on Facebook that we won, and it exploded,” Viele said. “Hundreds of people were commenting things like, ‘You deserve it, congratulations!’ When you’re just out there playing for 10 people at a time, you don’t realize how many people you’ve amassed who are supporting you.”
On March 21, Viele, 30, previewed his new album, “Fall Your Way,” to a packed house at Pacific Standard Tavern in New Haven. He’ll reprise the performance Friday, March 27 at Black-eyed Sally’s in Hartford.
Before his win, Viele hadn’t been playing sold-out shows. He’d been scratching and clawing along, playing every gig he was offered between Maine to Virginia, perfecting his craft as he went.
For years, Viele and his band, the Manhattan Project, were regulars at area clubs like Hartford’s Up or On the Rocks and Toad’s Place in New Haven. After releasing one record and opening for bands like moe., Keller Williams and Umphrey’s McGee, the band split up in 2011. “It was getting really cool,” Viele said. “Unfortunately, as things go, people had other commitments.”
As his band crumbled, Viele saw two paths: stop playing music, or learn how to carry a show on his own. “I realized that if I want to do this, I have to be fully confident in myself,” Viele said. “If, for some reason, the bus breaks down and the band can’t make the gig, I needed to know that I could do this myself.”
Viele hit the road as a solo performer, playing everywhere he could from Massachusetts to D.C. In Connecticut, he played cover songs under a fake name to make enough money to tour. His chops improved. “It’s very easy to hide your weaknesses as an artist and as a performer when you have six other guys around you who are amazing musicians,” Viele said. “I figured if I’m going to do this, I have to be the best that I can be, and the only way to do that is put a guitar on my back and go.”
‘You’re a musician now’
Eventually, Viele started work on “Fall Your Way” with Horizon Studios producer Vic Steffens. “[Steffens] called me into the studio, put a mic in the center of the room, and said, ‘Record everything you’ve never put on wax before,'” Viele said. Steffens picked 13 songs and called on musicians he’d worked with in the past, including guitarist Tim Palmieri (The Breakfast, Kung Fu, the Z3) and trumpeter Bill Holloman (Chic, Elton John). “I was used to writing songs to fit the band that I had,” Viele said. “[Steffens] said, ‘Let’s build the band around each song.'”
The album, “Fall Your Way,” features 12 original tracks ranging from the white-knuckle blues-rock of “Broken Love Song” to the horn-driven funk of “Kick Up Your Heels” and “Easy Money,” a mid-’70s shuffle that recalls Steely Dan and Chicago. It also includes a stripped-down cover of Bob Dylan’s “You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go,” which builds into a mid-tempo roots-rocker.
During the recording process, Viele and Steffens sent tracks to musicians they admired, to gauge their interest in adding parts. Four months after sending “Broken Love Song” to guitarist Joe Bonamassa, Viele received a 3 a.m. phone call from Steffens telling him to check his email; attached was a clip of guitarist Joe Bonamassa overdubbing a slide-guitar part.
“That’s when it hit me, at 3 o’clock in the morning,” Viele said, “This is now going past ‘I want to be a musician’ to ‘You’re a musician now.'”
After extensive touring, Viele took home the award for Live Act of the Year at the 2014 New England Music Awards. Even bad luck started turning into good luck: two days after the win, Viele’s main guitar was stolen out of the band’s trailer.
“When I posted about that on Facebook, that was unreal,” Viele said. “Everybody was reposting. It was an unbelievable surge, to the point where Breedlove Guitars, the type of guitar that I had, and two other guitar companies reached out to me wanting to help me get a new guitar.”
After Friday’s Black-eyed Sally’s show, Viele and his band take off on a spring tour that stretches across the Northeast, Southeast and Midwest.
“If you do this game right, if you play the gigs, if you’re humble and appreciate the opportunities as they are, if you stay and listen to the other bands that are playing on your bill, you learn so much about music and culture,” Viele said. “And you meet some amazing people.”
FRANK VIELE performs at Black-eyed Sally’s in Hartford on Friday, March 27. Showtime is 9 p.m. Information: blackeyedsallys.com.
