Brand new full-length record from TRIPI

Tony Tripi’s music has always been about something far greater than simply writing songs or stepping onto a stage. Recording as TRIPI, the Western New York-born artist draws on a life shaped by dramatic changes, personal challenges and experiences that have continually demanded determination. Raised across the Midwest and East Coast, his childhood moved between farms, suburbs, trailer parks and inner-city neighbourhoods, exposing him to vastly different environments and perspectives. Those experiences would eventually become the fuel for a songwriting style based in real life experience, with music offering a way to communicate feelings and stories that can often prove difficult to express through ordinary conversation.

Before beginning his recording career, Tripi had already walked a unique path; having survived a near-fatal house fire as a child, he later enlisted in the Coast Guard during his teenage years, worked in the trades, enjoyed a successful career as a financial estate advisor and founded Frequency Group. Alongside these professional achievements, he also faced personal struggles with addiction and the challenging process of recovery, with each chapter contributing to an outlook that places honesty and human connection at the centre of his creative work.

One childhood memory, in particular, continues to inform his understanding of music, when, as a fifth-grade student, after learning the American Sign Language alphabet, Tripi was selected to guide a group of deaf students to watch his school’s band perform. Seeing them experience music beyond the boundaries of hearing gave him an entirely different perspective on its possibilities. It showed that music could communicate through shared emotion and collective experience, not just relying solely on sound and that belief now sits at the heart of TRIPI’s latest album titled Close to Fire: Roman’s Anthology Release Part I.

Created following the death of his newborn grandson Roman, who passed away just one day after his birth, the album is perhaps Tripi’s most personal project thus far. Across ten tracks, he explores grief, love, remembrance and strength through a combination of rock, soul, original songwriting and interpretations of material by artists including Stevie Ray Vaughan and Eric Clapton. Starting with a single song, the project gradually bloomed into a collaborative undertaking involving nearly 20 musicians, many connected to the Asbury Park music community. Among those contributing are Jack Daley, James Maddock, Aaron Comess, Rob Clores, Marc Ribler, Tommy Byrnes and Mike DelGuidice.

The record creates room for people to acknowledge grief openly and its opening track, “Charlie’s Song,” introduces that intention through a profoundly personal reflection on child loss, inspired by a conversation Tripi witnessed between his daughter and her friend Liz during a stay at Saleh Carefarm. Beginning with a bright pop rock arrangement, the song brings together warm organ textures, bouncing piano, drums and expressive guitar, providing an unexpectedly buoyant backdrop for its tender subject matter. Tripi’s vocals move smoothly across the melody, balancing emotional sincerity with an accessible sound that allows the song to connect without diminishing the gravity of its message.

Another particularly affecting moment arrives through his interpretation of Stevie Ray Vaughan’s “Life Without You” and while he was originally intending to perform the vocals himself, Tripi found that he was unable to connect with the song during recording, describing an experience in which he felt unable to fully engage with its melody and rhythm. Recognising that the performance needed another perspective, he turned to Jack Daley, whose own recent bereavement following the death of his brother Frank brought an additional emotional dimension to the recording.

A respected bassist and producer, as well as a current member of Spin Doctors, Jack entered Dug Deep Production studio alone one evening and recorded the vocal from a highly personal place, resulting in an especially meaningful part of the album’s wider exploration of absence and enduring love. The record’s release was also marked by Close to Fire: A Grief Support Benefit Concert on the 23rd of October in Asbury Park during International Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month. Bringing together TRIPI and nearly 20 contributing musicians for a full album performance, the event raised awareness and support for families, caregivers and communities facing grief.

Close to Fire: Roman’s Anthology Release Part I has grown far beyond what TRIPI initially imagined and by reflecting on the people and experiences surrounding its creation, he says, “It is my hope that by coming together in a shared musical community, we can lean on each other when the grief is too much to carry on our own.” With Close to Fire, TRIPI transforms personal tragedy into an invitation to connect, remember and share the weight of loss. It’s a heartfelt and truly meaningful record that seeks to make space for people to feel, speak and find one another when words alone are not enough.

Listen to Close to Fire: Roman’s Anthology Release Part I below