Paddy Casey is an Irish artist I've been meaning to post about for years, but always seem to forget. I first heard of him back when he was playing ridiculously small venues in towns so small they barely qualified as towns in the rural areas of County Meath, Ireland circa 2000. I was living in Enfield, County Meath at the time. Unfortunately, I missed his performance at the local hotel there, but a friend was kind enough to give me a copy of his Amen (So Be It) cd.
Amen (So Be It) is one of those albums that I don't appreciate as much as I should. I tend to neglect it for months and sometimes years at a go, yet each time I'm amazed at how much I love the music and kick myself for not listening to it more often.
Like many Irish minstrels, Paddy Casey began his musical career as a busker on the streets of Dublin. He was signed by Sony in 1998 and for the next few years, he was almost constantly on tour. He was the opening act for REM and Ani Di Franco, in addition to his solo small venue tour.
"Whatever Gets You True" was apparently a minor hit in America in the late 1990s and featured on tv shows like Roswell, though I don't remember hearing it myself back then. Casey acquired some relative success with the release of his followup album, Living
, playing bigger venues and opening for Bob Dylan and Alanis Morissette. He seems to be gaining more popularity due to a recent tour supporting U2, but is still very much on the fringe of the America music scene.
Newer songs like "The Lucky One" and "Saints and Sinners" harken to mind the sincere yet upbeat acoustic sound of other Irish artists like Luka Bloom and Christy Moore, and their Scottish counterparts The Waterboys.
The music on Amen (So Be It), however, is a bit more plaintive and soulful. The album was a predecessor to the male singer-songwriter boom of David Gray, Damien Rice, Ray LaMontagne, and Joseph Arthur. "Ancient Sorrow" is my personal personal favourite on the album and foreshadows the gypsy troubadour meets trip-hop sound more recently heard in the music of Patrick Wolf and, to a lesser extent, Beirut. And "Sweet Suburban Sky" could easily be mistaken for a Ryan Adams song. Paddy Casey was certainly ahead of his time.
I attempted to contact Paddy and his management to request permission to share his music here, but the contact email on his website seems to be out of order and all of my emails have been returned. You can hear streams of some of his music on his website.
Paddy Casey Official Site
Buy the album
***
Note: Unless otherwise noted, right click on the mp3s to download them to your computer. Please do not post the direct link to my mp3 files to any other site or blog. Instead link to Muruch Blog or the particular post they are featured in.
Amen (So Be It) is one of those albums that I don't appreciate as much as I should. I tend to neglect it for months and sometimes years at a go, yet each time I'm amazed at how much I love the music and kick myself for not listening to it more often.
Like many Irish minstrels, Paddy Casey began his musical career as a busker on the streets of Dublin. He was signed by Sony in 1998 and for the next few years, he was almost constantly on tour. He was the opening act for REM and Ani Di Franco, in addition to his solo small venue tour.
"Whatever Gets You True" was apparently a minor hit in America in the late 1990s and featured on tv shows like Roswell, though I don't remember hearing it myself back then. Casey acquired some relative success with the release of his followup album, Living
, playing bigger venues and opening for Bob Dylan and Alanis Morissette. He seems to be gaining more popularity due to a recent tour supporting U2, but is still very much on the fringe of the America music scene.Newer songs like "The Lucky One" and "Saints and Sinners" harken to mind the sincere yet upbeat acoustic sound of other Irish artists like Luka Bloom and Christy Moore, and their Scottish counterparts The Waterboys.
The music on Amen (So Be It), however, is a bit more plaintive and soulful. The album was a predecessor to the male singer-songwriter boom of David Gray, Damien Rice, Ray LaMontagne, and Joseph Arthur. "Ancient Sorrow" is my personal personal favourite on the album and foreshadows the gypsy troubadour meets trip-hop sound more recently heard in the music of Patrick Wolf and, to a lesser extent, Beirut. And "Sweet Suburban Sky" could easily be mistaken for a Ryan Adams song. Paddy Casey was certainly ahead of his time.
I attempted to contact Paddy and his management to request permission to share his music here, but the contact email on his website seems to be out of order and all of my emails have been returned. You can hear streams of some of his music on his website.
Paddy Casey Official Site
Buy the album
***
Note: Unless otherwise noted, right click on the mp3s to download them to your computer. Please do not post the direct link to my mp3 files to any other site or blog. Instead link to Muruch Blog or the particular post they are featured in.
4 comments:
Nice to see a post on Paddy.
He's been very quiet of late. I didn't like his last album at all but I used to love Amen so be it.
Yeah, I like "Saints and Sinners", but I do prefer the Amen era of Paddy's music.
hello this is Paddy Casey here...thanks for the nice review..feel free 2 post the songs if u want.... :)
anonymous - If you're really Paddy Casey, please email me to prove your identity and I'll gladly oblige. :)
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