The atmosphere is reminiscent of America in the 30s but then, in a curious time warp between a shot of whiskey on the rocks and another whiskey in a coffee mug, you realize that either you have had too much coffee to drink or the musicians look like the ragged band of strays of the “Aristocats” now living in the Coliseum. And you start to notice that the singer has an accent that is clearly not New Orleans or Chicago, but reveals instead a distinct and strong Lucanian inflection and you also realize that the singer himself could be a movie actor who sings the Hymn of Basilicata and tells his own stories in music and perhaps everybody else's stories.

Stories where you breathe an essential and sarcastic Southern Italy atmosphere, stories of a muggy heartland that is not a definite place but it's the entire heartland, that part of Italy that has always been satisfied with little, but at the end they have never really cared that much. Stories about love that, as in every romance, begins, ends, moves away or even doesn't happen at all and stories where nothing is to be taken for granted. But the finest note of all is struck by the songs, these songs that are for laughs but at the same time also so hyper-real and dangerously close to melancholy that it takes only a slight twist and they can just as well make you cry. Really cry your eyes out.

Rocco has been writing these stories all his life and now he tells them, he adds rhythm and sings them accompanied by his quintet. You can get bored too, even if you change faces and characters more often than most people are allowed to do during their ordinary lives. Rocco doesn't really like to be always “the same” and it shows …….

It is better to change every now and then, better to open a window or tune a guitar, play three chords and let the feeling out, tell a story and tell a story about one's self, this time with fewer words and more notes.

Rocco has been feeling this urge for years and in fact every now and then he gives in to it and in those moments you can see him holding a beautiful song between his lips instead of a movie script.

The bottom line is that at the end a story is just a story and, if it is a beautiful story, it always deserves to be told because a beautiful story always touches the heart.