Wearing a fashionably crumpled jacket and toting an acoustic guitar, the singer Paolo Nutini was in Barga today for a photo session that ran through most of the narrow streets of Barga Vecchia culminating in a final session at the Duomo just before the light went as the sun went down behind La Pania. A very busy day for Paolo that started early this morning with a presentation of vintage motorbikes at Villa Moorings and continued right through the day with meetings, greetings, autograph signings and photographs, photographs, photographs. If all goes well an image of Paulo in Barga will be used on his forthcoming album “Sunny Side Up” due to be released on June 2nd.
Nutini and his band, The Vipers, will herald the album’s arrival with a live performance at the upcoming Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival in Indio, California, set for Saturday, April 18th. In addition, Paolo has slated a number of other April dates, including a free show at San Diego’s Del Mar Plaza on April 19th. Furthermore, Nutini and The Vipers will perform at a number of Earth Day-related events around the Pacific Northwest, with shows in Portland, Boise, Spokane, and Seattle. A full-scale North American tour will be announced shortly. In the UK all of the Scottish, London and Liverpool concerts are already sold out … London selling out in just under one hour of the tickets going on sale.
Late this evening Paulo returned to his base – the Hotel Villa Moorings where his final meeting was set up with members of the Barga Lake Angels. They were there to present him with a Lake Angels T-shirt and Honoury membership of the Lake Angels.
An honour which he rose to straight way by promising that if his calendar was free during July, then he would return to Barga with his band to play at this years Lake Angels Soul Festival. Considering that Paolo has only ever missed once being in Barga during July for as long as he can remember, then there is a good chance that come July 11, 12, or 13th he will be on stage for the Soul Festival 2009. Watch this space for more details.
A telephone call from Rwanda this morning, has revealed that experts working in the area have located a water source suitable for the Lake Angels project in Rwanda 2008.
It is all systems go for a pipeline of over 2 km to supply water to a school of 1500 pupils and water for 500 other people in the area.
The project will cost a total of Euro 20,000 – all of which is being raised by the Lake Angels.
Euro 8000 has already been raised with the Lake Angels Soul Festival held in Barga last year.
The spokesman for the Angels expressed confidence that the remaining Euro 12,000 will be raised with other fund raising efforts here in Barga this year. article here
Produced by Ethan Johns (Kings of Leon, Ryan Adams, Ray LaMontagne), “SUNNY SIDE UP” sees Nutini continuing to mine his arresting brand of soulful modern pop. Songs such as “Ten Out Of Ten” and “Coming Up Easy” display the gifted tunesmith’s ever-growing knack for irrepressible melodies melded with insightful and intimate lyricism, all held together by Paolo’s gritty and unpredictable vocal stylings.
“THESE STREETS” proved an international phenomenon upon its initial release, earning the Paisley, Scotland-born troubadour a cornucopia of critical praise and total worldwide sales in excess of two million. The album — which yielded three top 10 Triple A hits, including “New Shoes” and “Last Request” . The New York Daily News noted that “voices like Nutini’s come around just a few times in a generation.”
A uniquely charismatic live performer, Nutini toured nearly non-stop following the release of “THESE STREETS,” headlining countless shows and appeared at some of the world’s biggest festivals, including Live Earth, Lollapalooza, Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival, Glastonbury, T In The Park, Montreaux Jazz Festival, Austin City Limits Music Festival, V Festival, and the Isle of Wight Festival 2007
Great images of Paulo in the streets…. Ray LaMontagne is a big part of Maine… interesting to hear that there is a connection….
ciao..
Jesse
THE artwork for Paolo Nutini’s forthcoming album, Sunny Side Up, will have a distinctly Italian flavour to it, according to our man in Tuscany. Earlier this month, the Paisley-born pop sensation spent a whole day having his photo taken in and around the medieval hilltop town of Barga – ancestral home of the Nutini clan – and a snap like the one abovewill likely find its way onto the cover of his new record when it is released on 2 June.
With his last disc, These Streets, selling in excess of two million copies worldwide, you might expect the celebrity crooner to be mobbed by fans wherever he goes, but in Barga he’s treated like one of the locals.
“Paolo and the photographer were more or less left alone while they were working here,” says Keane, editor of the excellent local website, http://www.barganews.com (Keane’s just got the one name, for reasons far too complicated to go into here).
“Paolo’s been here every summer since he was a small boy, so he’s well-known in the area. A few people stopped to say hello, but other than that they let him be.”
Locals in Barga joke that anyone who speaks English in the town does so with a Glasgow accent, such has been the degree of emigration to the west of Scotland. It is estimated that some 60 per cent of the town’s population have relatives over here, mainly in Glasgow, Paisley, Largs and Saltcoats. It’s a two-way process though: among the ex-pat Scots with homes in the town are the artist John Bellany and Dunkeld pipemaker and piper Hamish Moore.
Locals hope Nutini will be back in town in July to perform at the Lake Angels Soul Festival – an event to raise money for an irrigation project in Rwanda. The singer has said he’ll see what he can do.
“They need 20,000 Euros to set this thing up,” says Keane, “and for Paolo to come over for the festival… well, that would really sort them out.” – full article on the Scotsman here
PAOLO Nutini returned to his Italian family hometown to shoot his latest album cover.
The Paisley-born singer spent a few days in the Tuscan hilltown of Barga Vecchia to get some original shots for the artwork for Sunny Side Up, which is out on June 2.
As well as exploring some of the local attractions, the These Streets star showed off a new short elfin hairdo.
He chatted to locals and visited his family’s old home from four generations ago for some special pictures.
His day continued with a trip to Barga’s duomo – the cathedral – and a walk to the landmark hill La Pania as the sun went down.
The weekend trip was a mixture of pleasure and work for the gravel-voiced star.
The next day, he met up early with some local bikers at his hotel to check out some of the 43 vintage models that were being exhibited as part of a celebration for the Indian Motorcycle company.
Paolo, 22, managed to have a shot on one of the vintage bikes and seemed pretty revved up.
After meeting and greeting autograph hunters and posing for more pictures, Paolo returned to his digs where he met the Barga Lake Angels.
The group of local men – who have raised money to help the povertystricken African country of Rwanda through winemaking and sales of antipasti – were there to present him with a T-shirt and honorary membership of the Lake Angels.
Paolo, who received the Golden St Christopher medal from the city to celebrate his contributions to Barga and its people in 2007, was so thrilled, he promised to return for this year’s Lake Angels Soul Festival in mid July.
He said: “I always love coming back to Barga and seeing everyone.” Having returned from his
Italian trip, Paolo performed in London last night, showcasing some of the songs from Sunny Side Up to an invited audience at Wilton’s – believed to be the world’s oldest music hall.
The audience was thrilled by a set including Candy, the first single from the album, Coming Up Easy and the jazzy Pencil Full Of Lead, which Paolo announced as “my favourite new one”.
He returned to his first album, 2006’s These Streets, for the encores, playing the title track and Last Request.
On April 18, he plays the Coachella Valley festival in California, followed by a free show at San Diego’s Del Mar Plaza on April 19.
He then returns to the UK for his sellout Scottish, London and Liverpool concerts and releases his new single on May 18.. full article here on Daily Record.co.uk
Paolo took to the narrow streets of Barga, Italy yesterday for a photo shoot in support of his forthcoming album, ‘Sunny Side Up’.
In addition to having his photos taken in the original home of the Nutini family – these photos may well be destined for artwork of the new album – Paolo was also presented with a set of vintage motorbikes as he took time out of the schedule to sign autographs.
Check out some of the new photographs here where you can also check out Paolo’s new haircut! – full article on http://www.paolonutini.com