Eichardt’s to host touring musician Dominick Antonelli

By Ben Olson
Reader Staff

For Dominick Antonelli, creating music has very much been a personal journey.

Playing instrumental and lyrical original songs, Antonelli’s style is inspiring, healing and contemplative. He’ll play a show at 7 p.m. on Saturday, June 6 at Eichardt’s Pub, 212 Cedar St., in Sandpoint.

The Pittsburg-born musician now lives in Fort Collins, Colo., where he studies music and recording arts at Front Range Community College.

Antonelli has been playing guitar for more than 20 years and has written originals for more than 15 of those. 

He plays a finger-style acoustic guitar with unique alternate tunings that give his instrument a much wider sound.

“It feels like a more full sound,” Antonelli told the Reader. “People have often shared that it sounds like there’s more than one guitar being played.”

The various alternate tunings allow him to accomplish rhythm and melody parts simultaneously, “so I’m able to play by myself and have a full, rich sound, rather than having to rely on another person,” he said.

Antonelli said he began exploring these unique tunings of the guitar because it became a process for understanding more about life within the music he was making.

“It allowed me to express and play and process things that had happened earlier in life that I didn’t know how to vocalize,” he said. “It gave me a way to etch out and explore and go on a treasure hunt, so to speak, in finding my sound.”

Antonelli’s instrumentals are intricate and expansive, often returning to familiar-sounding motifs that help build backdrops of sound. Songs with lyrics are often introspective, as if he’s working out the troubles of his soul in verse. Coupled with his use of Ableton, an audio workstation that can be used for live and studio recording, Antonelli said he’s found the sound he’s been looking for.

“When I first committed to playing music, it was just my therapy,” Antonelli said. “I enjoyed it but I didn’t love it. But, when I made the commitment to study music, all of these doors started opening, musically speaking.”

Antonelli said he no longer uses the guitar as his only form of therapy, finding a love for the instrument that he began playing as a child when he learned as a way to spend time with his father.

“But then, I quickly realized there’s something else happening here,” he said. “When I was 12 or 13, gears started turning. Originally I played to hang out with my dad, but it quickly turned into my processing agent.”

Antonelli said he used music to help get through a period where he struggled with various substances years ago, and now it has invoked a joy and curiosity that has helped him share — and heal — at the same time.

Antonelli just released his latest album The Only Road Back Home, which listeners can check out for free at linktr.ee/dantonellimusic.

He embarked on his first nationwide tour on May 28 and plans to live on the road until August, playing almost 50 shows and covering 13,000 miles. The Eichardt’s show will mark his first foray into Idaho.

Antonelli said he’ll play a mix of songs from his latest album at the show, as well as others from past efforts.

“They’re really chill and full, and melodic and meditative as well,” he said.