PETE Molinari is an Englishman from Chatham in Kent, with an Egyptian/Maltese heritage that gives him the swarthy look of an Italian matinee idol.

If you merely heard his voice and guitar, however, you’d swear he must from the America of Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan, Nashville and New Orleans.

Like Dylan in the Sixties, he has gone electric, but without the backlash, judging by the reaction to this year’s album, A Train Bound For Glory, and this week’s live show in the Hyde Park back streets of Leeds.

Molinari was a class act, from presentation to patter to songwriting craft to backing musicians, and it was a shame the crowd’s focus was drifting by the end on account of it being very late on a Monday night.

He and his swooning, heartbreaking songs would suit glitzier surroundings, but for now, on his Leeds debut, a typical West Riding social club would suffice. It helps when you have such wonderfully soulful country, folk and blues songs to call upon, from the new Streetcar Named Desire and A Place I Know So Well to earlier peaks Sweet Louise and Guilty.

Is he bound for glory to match the train of his new album title? If there are any just deserts, then surely yes. In the meantime, it would be swell if Nigel Burnham could book him for The Band Room at Low Mill; venue and musician are made for each other.