Paolo Nutini

Paolo Nutini, The New Scottish Star

Source: Speak Up

Language level: Basic

Standard accents: British and Scottish

The New Scottish Star

Everything about Paolo Nutini is impossible. His name is Italian, but he’s Scottish. He has the looks of a teenage pop star, but sings like a 1960s soul man. His record company told him to change his name, if he wanted success, but he refused. Last year he released a debut album, These Streets, which was a hit, and he is currently in the middle of a sell-out tour of the United States. The magazine Rolling Stone named him one of its “Ten Artists to Watch.”

FISH AND CHIPS

Paolo, who turned 20 in January, grew up near Glasgow, in the town of Paisley, where his parents own a fish and chip shop. His grandfather, Jackie, introduced Paolo to music and encouraged him to sing; Paolo wrote the song “Autumn” in his memory. Paolo says. “He was a big music lover. He loved boogie woogie piano and adored opera.” Jackie died when Paolo was about 11 years old, but he would have loved the passion and soul of his grandson’s voice.

Last summer the family visited their ancestral home Barga, a small town in the Northern hills of Tuscany, where Paolo gave a free concert. He announced, “I’m playing here in my nonno’s opera house, unbelievable! I’ll try to put on a show for you, if I can stop greetin’.” (Greetin’ is Scottish slang for “crying.”) Paolo’s songs are autobiographical; his album These Streets is a diary of his last three years. For example, the songs “Last Request” and “Rewind” recount problems with his girlfriend, whereas the title track, “These Street,” recalls his first, homesick days in London.

GOING HOME

“In my head i see a vineyard in Italy. I’ll build a recording studio there. That’s the plan…though I’ll have to return to Scotland now and then, just to keep my sanity.” If his voice doesn’t pay for that vineyard, his looks will: he has signed a contract with prestigious London agency Storm Models.

The Barga Connection (no audio)

High in the Tuscan hills, Barga is a town full of surprises. Visitors, who ask for directions, or perhaps a cup of coffee in a bar, get a big shock when the local people reply in broad Scottish accent. If it’s August in Barga, there is another big surprise: The Fish and Chip Festival.

Fish and Chip in Italy? Well, thousands of families emigrated from the area during the famines of the late nineteenth century. For example, Paolo’s great-grandfather took the Nutini family to Paisley where he opened their fish and chip shop. Over the years, many of the emigrants’ descendants have returned to their home town and brought Scottish traditions with them.