The first thing that hits you is the voice. Alex Lipinski’s caressing sympathy, full-throated resentment, and the raw rockabilly excitement of earliest Elvis have grabbed unwary listeners at clubs from the West Country to Krakow, Philadelphia and New York, since the 22-year-old moved from Weston-Super-Mare to London nearly three years ago. He has followed in the footsteps of his heroes Lennon and Dylan to London’s Tin Pan Alley and the Chelsea Hotel, soaking up experience evident in his urgent live conviction. The Royle Family’s Ralf Little is a fan, joining him on stage previously. The crafted intimacy of his debut album catches much of the mature musical control and adult yearning that already sets him apart.

Watching Lipinski today, singing his own songs or tearing into Elvis’s atom-splitting “That’s All Right, Mama” with the original’s innocent exhilaration, lessons have been learned since he moved to London in 2007. “I started at the very bottom,” he remembers. “I thought, ‘I’ve just got to play.’ I took the train to venues I’d heard about, playing and playing.” Entering London’s one-time Tin Pan Alley, Denmark Street, for regular gigs at the 12-Bar Club, the rock history he’d absorbed growing up seemed touchable. “Yeah, it was weird,” he considers. “Because I was walking down the street where the Kinks and Stones used to rehearse, bars where Lennon and McCartney used to drink, and Dylan played. But at the same time you want to be your own musician. I want to be on that stage.”

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