Satellite Inn (Italy) / Small Time Kid

Event information

FREE ENTRY SHOW! BUT THERE WILL BE A COLLECTION FOR THE BANDS! PLEASE BE GENEROUS!

In 1997 Satellite Inn music could be sure labelled alternative country. After all, their first demo came out in 1994, when Uncle Tupelo were still touring and Whiskeytown were an unknown bar band, just like them. The only difference was the 10,000 miles in between: Ryan Adams' gang in Jacksonville, Florida; Satellite Inn in Forlì, Italy.

In 1997 Raleigh NC label MoodFood Records, having just lost Whiskeytown to Geffen via R.E.M. manager Scott Litt's Outpost Label, chose Satellite Inn to replace them in the still boiling alternative country scene in the US. An Italian alternative country band in the US? It seemed so. Debut album Cold Morning Songs emerged in October 1998, driving positive reviews on the local scene and internationally too.

The following year the College Music Journal selected them for the CMJ Fest in New York City, where the quartet began their maiden East Coast tour. In 2001 they played at SXSW on top of a West Coast mini-tour, band leader and main songwriter Stiv Cantarelli then relocating to Boston. Things looked ready happen. What did happen is that MoodFood Records went out of business, and that was the end of the dream. Two steps into the new century, Stiv and Satellite Inn made new a start on their home turf when Stiv returned. With more psych folk/jam band influences, this second stint as Satellite Inn ended in 2007, the members engaged in personal projects through the time passing by, Stiv with his solo project backed by road pals Richmond Fontaine released on Willy Vlautin’s El Cortez label and road-tested on an acoustic tour of Italy with Bob Mould. Later, Stiv would make forays into the UK with punk-blues outfits The Silent Strangers and James Dean Hangover.

Then 2020 came by, along with the end of the world as we know it. During lockdown time, Stiv learned to play piano and wrote a lot of new songs with a familiar sound and an unknown destination. Somewhere in 2022, Stiv played those songs to one of the original 1998 Satellite Inn members, bass player Fabrizio Gramellini. After that, just like family members for too long separated, the pals teamed up again with their old drummer Antonio Perugini. As rehearsals came by, the search for a new/old sound followed, resulting in a bunch of demos. Playing the tapes to friends, it was suggested that they “sound like Satellite Inn back in the day". Only, while previously there was mainly punkish drive and desperation at being outcasts in their own country, now they sounded like they were delivering their own brand of folk, rock, punk and country, distilled by age and bottled in their native Romagna hills.

After 25 years, the new Satellite Inn record is here for you to listen to!