Sons of Italy at Family Wash

Good ol' Protestant Nashville isn't exactly crawling with Italian Americans, so it's nothing short of miraculous to find three on the same stage. (Four if you count bass player Nick Pellegrino—but of course, no one really counts bass players.) Echoes of Springsteen and Dylan can be heard in Philly native Chris DiCroce's songwriting, though his reedy tenor recalls nothing so much as the worldly-wise delivery of Tom Petty, particularly on tracks like “California” and “I'll Be a Man for You.” You may know Joe Pagetta for his work at NPT and Nashville Film Festival—he was named “Best PR Guy” in the Scene's Best of Nashville 2009 issue—but he's been a singer-songwriter since long before he started showing up on your TV screen during pledge week. On “Other People's News,” an intimate slice of reflective piano pop, Pagetta evokes the melancholy and isolation of being stuck in your own head, while “Both Be Wrong,” a lover's plea for reconciliation, reels with drama and grandeur of stadium-rock proportions. Vinnie Vidivici—the must-be-seen-to-be-believed performance art project of drummer to the stars (Shania Twain, Edgar Winter, Rodney Crowell, Emmylou Harris) Vinnie Santoro—mixes storytelling and offbeat humor with mad rhythm and rhyming skills. (Check out vinnievidivici.com to see “Varsity Letter,” the hilarious tale of his futile attempt to make his high school varsity football team.)
Sat., Nov. 7, 9 p.m., 2009