Pete Molinari: Walking Off The Map (Shock/EMI)

 |   |  <1 min read

Pete Molinari: Indescribably Blue
Pete Molinari: Walking Off The Map (Shock/EMI)

Molinari is from Chatham in England, but he might have stepped out of an East Village folk club in 1962. Dylan is an influence (he covers Bob's old Tomorrow Is A Long Time, and there is another early Dylanesque title and antiwar song in The Ballad of Bob Montgomery).

But his stripped bare style and memorable, emotional and unwavering voice sets him apart as very much his own man, even though he also sings The Ghost of Greenwich Village which is a harmonica-punctuated homage to that early 60s period.

He's a loner it would seem (he covers Hank Williams Alone and Forsaken with sensitivity, and there is also A Lonesome Episode and The World Has Gone Away And Left Me among the titles), but a key figure here is also cult figure Billy Childish in whose modest studio this was recorded.

He tips his hat to that much earlier period but Molinari is no mere copyist, and he has a way with a very astute, very British, pop song-structure.

This is quietly addictive and has rewarded many multiple back-to-back plays.

Share It

Your Comments

post a comment

More from this section   Music at Elsewhere articles index

Durutti Column: Idiot Savants (Artful)

Durutti Column: Idiot Savants (Artful)

To be honest, I thought they wuz dead! It has probably not been since the early 90s that I last heard of, let alone heard, Durutti Column. I just assumed that mainman/guitarist Vini Reilly had... > Read more

Forbidden Joe: Oh, what a queer sensation . . . (FJ)

Forbidden Joe: Oh, what a queer sensation . . . (FJ)

This three-piece from Auckland certainly arrive on this five-track EP with a weight of great expectation on their shoulders: singer Frances Dickinson has been hailed by someone on 95bFM as an... > Read more

Elsewhere at Elsewhere

WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT . . . TEX WITHERS: Country'n'Western from the East End

WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT . . . TEX WITHERS: Country'n'Western from the East End

The more you try to find out about Tex Withers, the more confusing it can become. One thing everyone agrees on however is that this country music singer in London – who insisted he had... > Read more

BOB DYLAN, PLUGGING IN, 1965-66; PHOTO ESSAY #2 (2018): Getting that wild mercury sound

BOB DYLAN, PLUGGING IN, 1965-66; PHOTO ESSAY #2 (2018): Getting that wild mercury sound

Although there were no photographers and phone photos allowed at the recent Bob Dylan concert in Auckland, the promoters and Dylan's management provided images to the media to cover any articles... > Read more