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

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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.

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