Paddy 32

About Paddy 32

The Blues. It's both a feeling and a kind of music. Paddy Smith has them both down...pat. As Paddy says
himself, "You either feel it...or you don't."
No one is sure whether the blues caught up with Paddy or if Paddy caught up with the blues, but it don't
matter. They're here now. Together. Whether he’s been living in Ireland, Chicago or California, the blues
has been inescapable and ever present in Paddy’s life. Most notably, he lost his 17-year-old daughter to
cystic fibrosis in 2010.
"Ciara was 17 years of age. She had just finished her exams with honors. She chose to have a lung
transplant in Newcastle, England. But, she died on the operating table. After she died, I spent two years
trying to kill myself drinking but one day I stopped and I got help. The music is what’s saved me.”
"My mum said I first picked up a harmonica around six years of age. I bent my first blues note at the age of
12, that’s the age I got into music because my mum brought my sister and me to a Rolling Stones concert
in 1982. I was 12, my sister was nine."
As it turns out, Paddy’s career was practically blessed by The Rolling Stones, themselves.
"My mum had met The Stones by chance when she and a friend went for a drink at the Gresham Hotel in
Dublin after a day's shopping. They started talking to two guys at the bar who happened to be Mick
Jagger and Keith Richards. My mum and her friend didn't know much about music so they didn't know
who they were. Mick and Keith got them drunk on whiskey and gave them free tickets to their Slane Castle
concert...that's how I ended up at the concert. I then started entering local talent competitions at 15. I
won a lot of them just playing harp…and I realized I had something!”
In 2013, Paddy released his 12-track album called ‘Let Those Blues In.’ It earned him kudos and airplay on
radio all over Ireland. In 2016, a short documentary by the same name aired on Irish national television &
won high praise and global awards for telling Paddy’s life story about the blues and his life today in
recovery. In 2016, Paddy also released a 4-song EP called ‘Ran Out of Road.’ He’s currently released his Second Studio The Devils Backyard A 9 track original Album 2022. currently released his Second Studio The Devils Backyard A 9 track original Album 2022 featuring Jason Duffy of The Corrs fame on Drums, James Delaney who regularly plays with van Morrison, on key boards, John Kearns Bass guitar who has played with Bella fleck to name but a few and legandary guitar man Danny Tobin.





He’s cut from the cloth of the classics. His favorite acts include John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters, Paul
Butterfield, Elmore James, Slim Harpo, and Howlin’ Wolf! His favorite show of all time was seeing John Lee
Hooker in the 1980s. “He was in his 70s by then but he rocked the place down!"
Whether he's performing blues standards or his own original material that's informed by his experiences,
Paddy Smith blows the blues. And he’s ready to share it with you. (expired link)