After three years of knocking on record company doors, musician Dave Hall hit upon a distinctly Brooklyn solution to the problem of being an unsigned artist: If you can't join 'em, fuhgeddabout 'em. 

The Boerum Hill singer-songwriter-guitarist is, for the moment, the only artist on the homegrown label Giuseppe Joe! Records. 

Named for Hall's life partner and business manager Joe Romano, the three-month old label is a pop and pop business venture that capitalizes on each person's strengths. "The label solidified my role in Dave's music career. It made us more serious and gave us a direction," Romano said during an interview over coffee at Ozzie's on Montague Street.  

I try to keep everything organized--the gigs, the promotion, marketing the CD, following up with radio stations to find out if they're playing it."  

"Joe's a real natural on the business side," said Hall, who has a degree in music composition from the Manhattan School of Music. "It's the kind of thing I think a lot of musicians don't have a background in. I hate picking up the phone and selling myself.  

"But you're getting better at it," interjected Romano, whose "day job" is as a data base administrator. "That's coming in handy too. We've got a great database for the company." 

So far the label has produced Hall's debut compact disc, "Playin' the Man," which is making the rounds to college radio stations throughout the northeast. He describes his style as "folk with a twist."  

Thematically, the songs on "Playin' the Man" touch upon gay subjects--three of the eleven songs in particular--but more generally they tell a coming-of-age story.  

"The album is organized chronologically, and hopefully people can see a progression toward self-acceptance," said Hall.  

The album ends with the song "His Name is Joe."  

"Yes, I'm Joe," confirms Romano, "but if you listen carefully to those lyrics, it's really about Dave."  

Hall sings, "I've traded in the garden and the picket fence/For a sweet 'so long' to old pretense." Another verse speaks of sitting in a church and being able to picture your lover walking down the aisle.  

"It's times like those when it really strikes you," explained Hall. "You sort of stop and say, 'wait a minute,' I ought to be entitled to the same thing every other adult is entitled to, but I'm not." 

Locally, the disc is being aired by radio stations at Brooklyn and Kingsborough Community College. In the region, St. John's Manhattan College, Barnard and Connecticut College as well as various colleges in New Jersey and Pennsylvania are playing "Playin' the Man.'  

"We're doing well on a new format they call Triple A--Album, Adult, Alternative," said Hall. "I guess it's less hard than a lot of rock formats."  

"We're trying to make a go of it locally--so that people will be able to hear it, go to a gig and buy the CD," said Romano.  

The name of the label has personal significance for Romano and Hall.  

My real name is Giuseppe. Dave calls me Giuseppe," said Romano. "It's somewhat funny because we appear to be so non-Italian. Also it's just a fun sounding name. We get a lot of questions about how to spell it." 

Both Romano and Hall have strong family roots in Carroll Gardens. Romano grew up in the neighborhood, attending the Carroll School, PS 58 on Carroll Street, JHS 142 on Henry Street and then Edward R. Murrow High School in Midwood.  

Hall's maternal grandparents are an only-in-Brooklyn combination. His grandmother is an Italian-Norwegian. His grandfather was Lebanese. They met at his father's tailer shop on Smith Street near Sackett.  

Hall grew up in Vermont, where his father was born. When he moved to the city to go to school, Hall gravitated to the area where three generations of his family before him came.  

"The quality of life is just so much better in Brooklyn--the quiet, the sense of neighborhood," said Hall. "I think you have to be somewhat masochistic to live in Manhattan, particularly if you haven't got a lot of money." 

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