Paolo Nutini at the Beaumont: Scotty’s Night Out

Editor’s Note: Last night, my friends Tom and Nancy, who own Bloomsday Books in the Crestwood Shops at 55th and Brookside, together with me and a couple of others took one of the bookstore regulars to a concert. The Right Honourable John Donnelly is a 75-year-old boilermaker from Paisley, Scotland, who moved to Kansas City in the early ’60s and hangs out at Bloomsday most days of the week, orating on books, boiler repair, carpentry, politics, the clans of Scotland, Japanese prints, Texas history and, above all, the proper way to do things.

So, as you can imagine, getting him out to see a rock show was not easy, but we were determined, because 20-year-old Atlantic Records recording artist Paolo Nutini is also from Paisley, Scotland. Nancy was the chief organizer of the group; she kept us committed even after some of us heard Nutini’s latest album and weren’t impressed. But the whole thing was worth it. (Thanks, Nancy.) As to John Donnelly’s musical tastes, I’m not sure. I know he likes the bagpipes, and once, at the bookstore, we were going around naming what song we’d choose to have played at our respective funerals, and John, without thinking twice, picked “China Grove” by the Doobie Brothers.

In short, Donnelly’s way more rock and roll than you can even understand. I now turn the review (mostly) over to him.