The following article appeared in the 31st January to 6th February edition of the Pittsburgh City Paper and is reproduced with kind permission of John Patrick Gatta.

It's been two decades since Kasim Sulton released a solo album. During the interim he recorded and performed with, among others, his ex-Utopia bandmate Todd Rundgren, Patti Smith, Mick Jagger, Celine Dion and the Indigo Girls. But beginning last summer, Sulton decided he deserved some "me time," working on a solo album and touring the States on his own.

"It's so easy doing it this way, without a band," says Sulton, on the phone from Staten Island. "It's just me, and I put my equipment in my car and I go. On a certain level that sounds like back in high school doing it, but it really works for me at this point. I would love to have a band, but right now the numbers just don't make enough sense for me to travel with a couple of musicians."

Sulton uses the intimate concert experience to showcase material from his days in Utopia as well as his solo work. In a way he's trying to make up for lost time. His lucrative days as a session and touring musician kept the bank account filled but his catalogue of releases at a minimum.

Sulton's second solo album of Beatlesque pop sensibility and lush harmonies, Quid Pro Quo, is due for release this April. On it, he maintains the me-first attitude - writing all the songs, playing all the instruments and recording it himself, on his own schedule.

"I just wanted to have the luxury of taking my time. There wasn't any sort of conscious decision to sit down and say, 'Okay, by this time next year I'm going to have my second solo record.'"

Kasim Sulton performs at 8 p.m. Tue., Feb. 5, at Club Café, South Side. 412-431-4950.