It’s tough being a fan of singer/songwriter/pianist Paolo Conte if you don’t know much Italian. I first heard Conte’s music while working in a bookstore in northern California thanks to one of my spectacular co-workers playing Conte’s Best of… CD over the PA. I fell in love with the music – which, though I tend to shy away from direct artist comparisons, I have often described to people as “if Tom Waits sang French songs in Italian” – but it’s been difficult keeping up with him since.
You may well have heard Conte, too, as songs like “Come Di” and “Via Con Me” have been used in a couple of American films (like the Cleveland-set Welcome to Collinwood). His bi-lingual music is often upbeat and infectious but also ranges to the utterly beautiful. A lawyer as well as a musician (his family have been solicitors for generations), he is known to accompany himself by producing trumpet sounds with his mouth.
And it just so happens that he released a new album last month called Nelson (in honor of his dog).
Italian journal-makers Moleskine love Conte, too, and have produced a lovely special edition Nelson journal.
You can purchase Nelson on Amazon and iTunes Italy (though apparently not iTunes U.S.). And your guess is as good as mine on where to get the Moleskine journal.