Pete Molinari

Pete Molinari, a British singer, songwriter, and guitarist, draws creative fuel from the legacies of Woody Guthrie, Lead Belly, and Phil Ochs along with the 1960s folk revival, converting those sources into a sound that remains both innovative and respectfully grounded in tradition. Born into a large Maltese/Italian/Egyptian family in Chatham, Kent, he absorbed music early through his older brothers’ record collections and developed a lasting fascination with John Coltrane, Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan, Jimmy Scott, Lead Belly, Hank Williams, Billie Holiday, and other artists from earlier eras. After encountering Guthrie’s Bound for Glory and Jack Kerouac’s On the Road, he headed to New York City and spent a couple of years sharpening his live skills in its historic folk and blues clubs, also traveling through Memphis, New Orleans, San Francisco, and Los Angeles before returning to Chatham to cut his debut, 2006’s Walking Off the Map, on an old Revox tape machine in friend Billy Childish’s kitchen. For the follow-up, 2008’s A Virtual Landslide, he partnered with producer Liam Watson at Toe Rag Studios, yielding several full-band tracks whose throwback character felt simultaneously fresh and contemporary. Momentum continued with 2010’s A Train Bound for Glory, a release that highlighted his folk roots and brought U.K. recognition, including a Best Newcomer nomination at that year’s Mojo Awards. Additional high-profile friendships followed—he performed with Yoko Ono at the 2013 Meltdown Festival and received praise from Bruce Springsteen and Ray Davies—and several of those musicians contributed to 2014’s Theosophy, among them legendary DJ Andrew Weatherall, Black Key Dan Auerbach, and producers Tchad Blake and Liam Watson; the album arrived in the summer of 2014.