Fresh Loaf

Singer/songwriter Paolo Nutini has more than a few bad habits. Besides being fond of ratty, old-man sweaters, and sporting a longish and messy mop-top in desperate need of a scolding from a large hairbrush, the 20-year-old Scotsman showed up at the Variety Playhouse Wednesday night clearly having previously participated in a favorite Scottish pastime — getting shit-faced. Not that the crowd cared. Nutini’s voice sounded a little like how Van Morrison would sound after being put through a washing machine, and his scratchy, sexy croon was enough to shut up even the rowdiest concertgoer (read: drunk, obnoxious sorority sisters who were standing to my left).

In addition to playing his wildly fun rock ’n’ roll singles “Jenny Don’t Be Hasty” and “New Shoes” from his These Streets album, Nutini debuted two new songs for the Atlanta crowd titled “Rainbows” (which was surprisingly, given the title, the loudest and most energetic tune of the night) and “55 to 1,” a charming ditty about the odds of a long-distance relationship making it through the long haul. After playing crowd favorite “Funky Cigarette,” which he described as being about his first experience with ganja, Nutini launched into a brilliant cover of Amy Winehouse’s “Rehab.”

Following in the footsteps of KT Tunstall, Nutini is on his way to becoming the Next Big Scottish Thing. The Variety was filled to the brim with teenyboppers AND their parents, and both groups seemed to find Nutini’s slightly off-kilter (get it? Kilts? har har har) demeanor adorable, even if they weren’t able to translate his Scottish brogue into “Southern speak” (I heard at least five people yell: “Dijya’ll just get what he said?”). But even if they didn’t get every word of his stage banter, they knew all the words to his tunes, joining in what Nutini called his “first Southern sing-along.” Check out more Paolo Nutini at www.myspace.com/paolonutini.

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