The family that rocks together, stays together

By Jeff Pope

Wednesday, May 6, 2009 | 3:45 p.m.

From a young age, Joei Fulco and her brother, Jesse, have known they wanted to be professional musicians.

It would have to have been a young age because they aren’t even in high school yet. Joei is 12, and Jesse is 10. But they’re on their way to their dream careers, having signed an album deal with Global Music Group in Nashville. They also recently filmed a pilot for a television show that producers are shopping to Disney and Nickelodeon.

Roland Turner, Global Music Group CEO, said the Summerlin youngsters could be the next Hannah Montana.

“We love what they stand for. They’re wholesome. For a 12-year-old and a 10-year-old to not only perform the way they do, but they also write their own music, we just thought they were exceptional,” Turner said.

The duo started as a quartet with father Joey on drums and mother Vanessa on keyboards. They were setting out to be a modern-day Partridge Family, but the kids have much more appeal to the tween audience.

“We live in a Disney world. We live in a Jonas Brothers world,” Joey said. “That’s really how this business is structured right now.”

The siblings include the young Disney stars among their favorites performers, but that list also includes Al Jolson, Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, Joan Jett, Pat Benatar and The Beatles.

“When we play, we also try to introduce the old styles of music to nowadays. Add that kind of music into our songs and see how the crowd enjoys it,” said Joei, who attends Sig Rogich Middle School. “If we play in front of kids, we’ll play more of the songs we play, but we’ll also play a few of the old songs.”

Joey Fulco has been a professional musician for 33 years, playing and writing along with Julian Lennon, Carl Perkins and John Sebastian, among others, he said.

Crowned Mr. Teen America at 19 years old, Joey traveled throughout Europe and the United States with his family and performed in numerous bands.

Jesse was 5 years old when he started asking his father to teach him to play the bass.

“I thought he was just a kid trying to goof around. The reality was he really did want to play,” Joey Fulco said. “I made Jesse a deal. I said I’d teach him how to play as long as he spent 10 minutes a day, every day, practicing.”

It was harder to find a bass he could hold than it was to teach him notes, Joey Fulco said.

Jesse has been invited to play at Epcot Center for a Beatles tribute show. Although he’s right handed, Jesse plays left handed, just like Paul McCartney.

Joei picked up the guitar about the same time and writes all the original music with a little advice from her father.

“I want it to be musical with that splash of that ’70s thing, but everything has to be insignificant in terms of its lyric. It has to be fun and spontaneous. We’re not trying to save the world,” Joey Fulco said. “There’s a time for that, but right now it’s time for good old fashion rock n’ roll.”

For the past year, Joei and Jesse played kid-friendly venues around town in a group called the Marble Canyon Gang.

Shortly after the group disbanded, music manager Eddie Rhines heard about the siblings and flew to Las Vegas to see them perform live. Within five days, he had a recording contract with Global Music Group.

Rhines’ agency, ACTS Nashville, also represents Confederate Railroad, Pirates of the Mississippi, Kenny Chesney and Roy Clark.

Their parents said they don’t worry that stardom will go to their heads. Both are honor roll students, donate their time and toys to children in local hospitals and held a concert to raise money for the homeless.

“That starts at home,” Vanessa Fulco said. “We turn everything into a lesson no matter what it is.”

The Fulco duo could expand in the future. Five-year-old sister Stevie shows promise as a singer. They also have a 3-year-old brother, Tyler.

“We’re really a musical family,” Joey Fulco said. “I was never going to push it because I know how difficult it is, how heartbreaking it is. But they showed me enough tenacity.”

The parents, however, won’t give up their music careers. They signed a two-album deal to record children’s music.

Mike Wilson, CFO of Global Music Group, said Joei and Jesse’s future is limitless.

“I think they’re going to continue from the time we’re starting with them now. I think everybody’s going to grow with them,” he said.