Whether it was portraying a young Ebeneezer Scrooge in a 6th grade play, being a high school quarterback with quite a playoff story to tell, playing college baseball when what he really wanted to do was play Dylanesque music as a local musician, Nick Politelli’s many layers of self, light and dark – and incredibly relatable – have coalesced in his second solo album, Home for Good and All (mixed and engineered by Chuck Perry, released in July, 2025). Politelli (of Ravi Shavi and the Lookers) engages in songwriting and guitar playing that will have you wondering whether you’re hearing a present-day musician or someone from the annals of American music history. His new record had me at the first guitar strum. Whenever you listen to his songs (accompanied by many Rhode Island artists), you will certainly experience some form of what he describes as a “cinematic” journey – a compilation of lyrics, melodies, and emotions, all of which will have you feeling a sense of home.
Mayté: Tell me about your connection to RI and your musical background.
Nick: I was born in Cranston, but raised in Warwick, that’s where I went to school. I played baseball and football at Toll Gate High School, and didn’t really pick up the guitar until I graduated. I went to college in Newport at Salve Regina University, played baseball there for four years. I studied abroad in England my junior year, and that’s when I started performing under a fake name, pretending I was Bob Dylan pretending he was Woody Guthrie.
M: Stop it, really?! So then you basically transitioned from one passion to another.
N: Yeah, I guess, sadly. I was probably a good baseball player but I wasn’t really as into it in college. I was more into playing music, and I think that showed. I started listening to Bob Dylan in high school. Bob Dylan, Arlo Guthrie, Woody Guthrie… You just become really locked into that Greenwich Village folk scene that was depicted in A Complete Unknown. I really liked that Bohemian old New York that we really can’t and don’t have anymore.
M: Funny, but I imagined you there – in that particular music scene. Is this your first solo album?
N: No, I have an EP that I recorded in 2022 [Examiner] with one of the best singer-songwriters that I’ve ever heard – Keith Zarriello of The Shivers. Rafay [Ravi Shavi] called him up one day and said, “Hey, would you like to produce something that my friend Nick has?” He was into it so we drove to Saugerties, New York for a couple of weekends, and recorded in a cabin in the woods with no running water. I’m proud of those songs too, but it’s a different vibe.
M: What would you say the vibe is?
N: That’s a good question. Keith put it to me like this: He said, “When you go to a supermarket and you hear music playing, all you can hear sometimes is the snare drum and the vocals.” So let’s focus on those two things. So if there’s anything that brings those five songs together, it would be that idea.
M: What would you say the vibe is of this new album?
N: I think it’s closer to me. It’s more of me because the ideas are more fleshed out. The first half is essentially acoustic and the second half features the band. There’s one record I know like that, Bringing it All Back Home by Bob Dylan. Not that the songs sound like that, but that was what I had in mind – presenting these two sides. I started playing folk, country, blues – stuff more in the singer-songwriter realm in college, and once I graduated, I joined Ravi Shavi and started playing more pop-oriented rock and roll.
M: I really liked the progression of the songs. It all sort of connects at the end.
N: Yeah, I’m glad it does. I would say musically, it’s honestly a bit all over the place, but I think there’s something that ties it together. What it is I don’t know, maybe we’ll get to that. •
Continued interview for web only:
M: Let’s! What is your why”- behind creating this album?
N: I’m just compelled to write songs and see them through. It’s very simple. I’ve been doing it as long as I’ve been playing music. It’s just something that I do, and luckily, I have people around me who are willing to record and play with me, and that makes this all a lot easier and more fun. Everyone has a furnace, you know? And for some people, it’s creative; for some it’s money, career, or family-oriented. I have many furnaces. I want to contribute to the growing collection, the compendium of American music. Essentially, that’s really it. I want to be a part of it, part of the songwriting club. That’s why I make music.
M: As a listener you had me at the first chord of “Hero’s in the Laundry Room”. I’ve seen you play it live and thought I knew what to expect but then boom! It was a surprising mix of sounds and really a preview of the whole album. What is the songwriting process like for you?
N: Really for me, while all songs are personal, I don’t know that writing them from the first person perspective all the time is the most effective way to write for me. I’ve always liked music that is a little cinematic, with images, and I’m not a movie guy at all- in fact- I’ve seen like five movies! But it’s how I hear music. It’s so tied to seeing an idea through- kind of creating a montage of images related or unrelated, and bringing them together in a way that is exciting for me, and hopefully the listener. The most fun part about music, for me, is being wrapped up in an idea and finishing it. And I have such a love for American folk music, all folk music, really. But because I’m from a place, you know, that has such a rich musical history, I like grabbing as much from it as I can. And I think that first side is just me grabbing and pulling at the tradition of American music and songwriting as far back as I’ve heard it.
M: You achieved that- before you said anything about Bob Dylan, I had already written his name in my notes- I’m not an expert on his music at all.
N: I know too much about Bob Dylan. Last summer, I listened to every single song, not just the full length albums, everything, all of the bootlegs. It was probably 81,000 hours, and as soon as I finished, he released another 500 songs- Before the Flood Live- basically the 1974 tour- the complete shows, and I just gave up. I said, you know what Bob? I’m done.
M: Ha! Can you say more about this lyric “my face doesn’t match my feelings”?
N: It’s a ragtime song called, “If You Ever Wondered Why”. All the ragtime songs I’ve heard lyrically are pretty light, more often than not they’re bawdy- but that’s not the direction I wanted to go. I find ragtime piano and guitar music exciting, and I think you can just have a little fun with the lyrics. It’s tongue-and- cheek, half-serious, jokey. And yeah, sometimes I feel like my face doesn’t match my feelings. It’s more literal. So if you’re talking to me and I look like I’m frowning, I’m probably very happy on the inside.
M: That does sound like you! I also noticed a lot of waltzes.
N: One in particular is “Mad About You”. I believe that’s in 3/4 (time signature). I think I just said I want to have a song in 3/4, with a good melody in the chorus, a cowboy waltz type song that I could make my own and have in my back pocket (ready to play). “Mad About You” is one of them, and “Memories” is another one.
M: From the same song, this lyric struck me: “If you wait in the wings, love, she might fly away.” Who is she?
N: Love. Love might fly away.
M: I see. There are some heavy topics in your songs too. In “Hero’s in a Laundry Room” you sing about “teacups of self abuse” and “autopilot eyes.”
N: Yeah it just refers to a darker time and place with redeeming potential for the hero. You know, images that I had witnessed many, many, times in a basement, or in this case, the laundry room.
M: Got it, now tell me about “Seeing red, as good as dead.”
N: Seeing Red- I’ve had it for a long time. Me and Rafay played that on a WBUR session, with mugs (the Lookers) and roz (nova one). But I didn’t really like the way I sang that, I didn’t have verses, so I just reworked the song, and wrote some verses that I thought made some sense; cause I like this major seven chord kind of vibe.
M: You musicians and your major sevens.
N: Love the major sevens. It’s all over this. I wanted that song to see the light of day. Rafay may have helped write that hook in 2013 and it finally came together. If you listen closely, you’ll hear Chuck Perry (Joy Boys) playing the organ. I said, “just make it sound like one of those Bob Dylan songs!” So there’s an organ in there, and it sounds like Garth Hudson- playing that kind of whiny-melodic way. But yes, Chuck! He produced, engineered and recorded everything that I did. He was there 100% of the time. He’s awesome. He’s a talented musician himself. And he played bass on all the songs that there is bass on and keys. He sat with me in that leaking studio for basically an entire year and painstakingly recorded every idea I had. So without him, I would have no record.
M: Many Rhode Island artists play on the record with you.
N: Yes, almost all of them are neighbors, too! From Providence, Cranston and Pawtucket. I was looking up and down my street, and [knew I could] assemble a great team. They came in and I said, “I don’t really have any ideas, but I know your instrument and your playing would be great, so make it sound good to you. With talented musicians and songwriters- I don’t like giving a lot of direction. I think it’s kind of silly. If you hear them, then they’ll be able to do what they do, and it’ll be great. I trust everyone I work with.
M: What else do you want to share about the record?
N: There’s a funny anecdote for the last song, “45’s the Mike”. This is a little inside football here- but the Mike refers to the “Mike linebacker” (the middle linebacker on defense). He’s the leader of the linebacking core on a defense, the one that makes the calls. My junior year of high school, I played quarterback, and my team, the Toll Gate High School Titans went to the playoffs for the first time in a while- it was either the first or second game in the playoffs, the quarterfinals. We were down and I was tasked with scoring the game winning touchdown. We moved the ball up the field and with about 50 seconds left on the clock, I was asked to throw the ball deep to the tight end, and I threw it about 10 yards short, and it got intercepted by the defense, and the game was over, haha. Some things you just never forget. I always wanted to translate the emotion of that, there are many disappointments in life, but when you’re a kid, sometimes there are some things you cling to- and that one I always wanted to revisit in some way. It’s not what the song’s about, but it was the idea that made the song exist.
M: In revisiting, what did you accomplish?
N: Not much, just a song came from it. I still lost the game. The team still doesn’t like me very much, probably because of that, but maybe they’ll get a kick out of it if somebody listens to it.
M: No pun intended?
N: Yeah. No pun intended. Ha! Very good.
The title of Nick Politelli’s second solo record, “Home for Good and All” may or may not come from Charles Dicken’s “A Christmas Carol”, he won’t confirm or deny said possibility, but he does have one request for those willing to follow suit, “please listen, even if it’s just one song once a month.” To join Nick on this musical ride you can go to his bandcamp page at https://nickpolitelli.bandcamp.com/music