Paddy gets high horse high
Joe Fitzsimons reviewed Paddy Casey's Trim gig for his joeslocalbands site.
The High Horse in Trim welcomed Paddy Casey, one of Irelands most exciting live performers on Thurs last (30th April). Paddy’s musical career path began when he got his first guitar aged about 12, then as with many others, took the busking road to Dublin and Galway in the 90s. Highlights since then included, releasing his award winning debut Album Amen, So Be It (1999), 12 times platinum single “Saints & Sinners” from Livin’ (2003), toured with U2, Pearl Jam, The Pretenders, and many more. In 2008 he performed “Fear” on Letterman. In 2012, he released his latest album The Secret Life Of.
The first track (There Is Light) on his latest album opened the show at The High Horse. From there on we were treated to “The Paddy Casey Songbook”, dipping into the best tracks from his four albums since 1999. Highlights included The Lucky One, Whatever Gets U Thru, Rise & Shine (dedicated to the “other” Enda).
The man with the powerful voice, blue guitar and “powerboard bass” (drum bass box), was accompanied by the wonderful Fiona Melady on keyboard and backing vocals. Paddy quickly warmed to this new crowd and invited audience participation with the catchy “You Want It, Cant Have It”. The packed crowd reacted positively to his call, and no wonder, as this very personable musician delighted the crowd with his friendly, funny banter and more hits from his impressive repertoire.
He continued in this vein with Livin, Rise, Tell Her (“for anyone who got dumped!”), Promised Land, the sublime Sweet Suburban Sky, and his superb cover of Backstreet’s No Diggity. As his performance drew to a close we waited for the song most associated with Paddy – the wonderful Saints and Sinners, of course. As he sings “I wish I had more time”, the audience could not agree more. He changes these lyrics to “I wish I had more strings” – for obvious reasons, and much to the delight of the audience, he repeated the song, this time with a different guitar.
Nobody believed our new “friend” Paddy when he bade farewell to Trim, as so he returned with an encore including the funky upbeat Wait, from his new album. With gratitude to Peter and the staff of The High Horse, this new band of Paddy Casey fans gave the man the standing ovation he deserved, in the hope of a return visit. Thank you for the music Paddy Casey.
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