Stage lights shone off Jimmy Atto’s blue Crocs as he tapped his foot to the rhythm of his guitar. His black curls rebounded as he thrust the final chord of his first song. The 28-year-old singer-songwriter from Detroit introduced himself and immediately began to talk with the audience.
“So I left all my shoes in Detroit,” Atto began. He told the crowd of about 50 at The Union Sports Annex that he didn’t notice he’d forgotten the shoes until he reached the University of Mississippi to play his first show this fall. By the Oct. 4 show at Marquette, he’d been wearing the same pair of worn-out blue Crocs for a week and a half.
Atto hasn’t gone back for his shoes. He’s pushing through his nation-wide college campus tour in Crocs because the best way to convey his music is through live performances, he said. This is why he spends more time performing than striving for perfection on his albums.
“Who would want to hear something that sounds perfect on an album, then come to the show and be disappointed because it doesn’t sound like it did on the album?” Atto said. “I like to overproduce at live shows and give (the audience) more than they expected.”
Atto calls himself a one-man outfit. He books his own shows, writes his own songs and plays the guitar and harmonica. His original influences were Matchbox Twenty, U2 and John Mayer, but now he’s taken on the acoustic influences Keb’Mo’, Jack Johnson and David Gray.
Atto’s development as an artist has taken a few twists and turns over the past six years.
Atto said he doesn’t really know how he ended up with two albums and nation-wide tour from his Ford Taurus he dubbed the “TaurBus.” Atto didn’t even own a guitar prior to college.
Atto used to sing along while his high-school friend, Ben, played the guitar. The self-described late bloomer ended up with the guitar as a last-minute gift when Ben forgot Atto’s 18th birthday.
“It’s a running joke,” he said. “What inspired you to make music? Oh, my friend’s guilt.”
After teaching himself on the guitar, Atto wrote a few songs and played mainly at open mic nights in coffee shops.
“I did it when no one was listening,” he said.
Before graduating from Western Michigan University in 2002, Atto realized he wanted nothing to do with his degree broadcast and cable production. He began working on his first album, “Time Is Right.” The producer required that Atto buy a minimum of 1,000 copies of the CD, which Atto said left him broke.
“But the coolness outweighed the brokeness,” he said.
In efforts to get rid of his CDs, Atto decided to hop in the TaurBus and set out for colleges and universities. Along the way he released his second album, “Low Carb LP,” in 2004.
Atto toured steadily for four academic years after graduating. The pay on tour was sporadic and unpredictable. To make ends meet, Atto waited tables, delivered flowers and did computer consulting during the summer. Atto said he became “sucked in by the pay check” from his summer jobs and ceased his tour. But he was miserable. And he was still broke.
“I thought, ‘I could play music and I could still be this broke, but I could be really enjoying life,’” he said.
Now Atto is on the second leg of his tour, playing shows until the end of November. He calls it “resurgence.”
Atto said he’d much rather perform live than record an album. There’s more interaction. He values that simple form of communication. It’s action and reaction between performer and audience that’s just understood, he said.
Atto’s real dream is to perform a college lecture tour where everyone knows his songs and he can explain the how each song came to be.
Matt Binder, 28, studied broadcast and cable production with Atto at Western Michigan and has helped produce both of Atto’s albums.
Binder said Atto would sometimes walk into class looking beat up and tired from the night before, not from partying, but from playing.
Atto focuses on telling stories through his songs, Binder said. Often times songs are about people he’s met or has made up. Characters pop up all over Atto’s songs, and the audience hears the back-story, Binder said.
One of these back-stories is about Atto’s his little sister, Margeau Barnes, now 17.
Barnes said Atto used to take her to the fair when she was young, but she would become extremely jealous when girls would gaze over at her attractive older brother. So Atto wrote one of his first songs based on their childhood days at the fair called “Look-out.” Atto said the song gives brotherly advice and tells his little sis some things about life.
“As for what the others say/ I don’t care/ There’s no ‘older brother’s day’/ It’s not fair/ As for all the passers-by/ Don’t stare/ You will always have a guide/ I swear.”
Barnes said she gets emotional when Atto sings her song.
“He loves hanging out with his little sister,” she said. “He’s down to earth and chilled out all the time, and he always stuck up for me.”
Chill as Atto may be, Barnes added that her brother is a goofball.
Binder also recalled Atto’s silliness. Atto recorded the scratch tracks of “Low Carb LP” lying on his back on a couch in the studio “just taking it easy,” Binder said.
“He’s definitely a goofball who likes to joke around,” Binder said. “But I know when it comes to his music he’s real serious about it.”
Binder said Atto is willing to get up and play anywhere. Atto will call Binder at odd hours so he can stay awake a he drives the TaurBus across the country from show to show, he said.
“He’s a maniac like that,” Binder said. “He’s very dedicated to his craft and what he does.”
Atto wrote a song called “Ordinary” about this dedication and his tours and travels. Atto said he drives endlessly and constantly asks himself what he’s doing.
“It’s about uncertainty and solitude, knowing why you’re doing it but not understanding how you got there,” he said.
Atto said he never thought he’d reach this point in his career.
“I don’t care about being rich. I just want to make a living and I want to be able to write songs and play music,” Atto said. “And maybe I can make a little money -- enough to buy a new pair of crocs once in a while.”
Atto plans to return to The Annex for a follow-up show this spring. A date has not yet been set.
