Navan bluesman courageously goes where few fear to tread

Smith explores painful aspects of his life in new album

“The blues is life itself,” said legendary guitarist BB King once.

Chapters from his own life have long inspired Navan bluesman and widely renowned harmonica player Paddy Smith.

Those life experiences have provided the raw material for many of the songs he has recorded to date including a new album he has recently completed and will bring out later this summer.

The first single – Could Have Found Grace - from the album of the same name will be released this Friday, 14th May and will be available on all online platforms.

The album, which contains seven original songs, will be released in the coming months.

The name – Could Have Found Grace – is taken from a line from one of those songs. “I wrote this song Angle Took Flight and in the lyrics there’s this line: ‘I could have found grace’ so I took the name of the album from that,” he explains.

“It’s about my drinking in the wild days, when you look back on it, it’s a little late: ‘You could have found grace if you weren’t so blind,’ goes the song. It’s really about the passing of my daughter.

Paddy’s daughter Ciara sadly passed away in 2010 from cystic fibrosis. Ciara was only 17.

A reformed alcoholic Paddy lived on the streets of Chicago for a time as he struggled to come to terms with his drinking and such experiences provided him with the raw material for songs contained in previous albums such as ‘Let Those Blues In’ and ‘The Devil’s Backyard’.

The manner in which Smith draws from his life experience backs up another observation from great blues woman Amy Winehouse who siad: “Every bad situation is a blues song waiting to happen.”

Could Have Found Grace is the Navan man’s sixth recording, with is range of work also including two live albums.

The new album also features four songs written by another composer from the Meath town, Robbie McDonnell.

Some years ago an accidental meeting between Smith and McDonnell on a street in the town led to a discussion on music that eventually evolved into the two of them working together.

“Robbie just likes to concentrate on writing. We met one day and he gave me a few songs he had written, I took them home with me and I realised they were fantastic. This is our second collaboration,” added Smith.

The Could Have Found Grace album also features a string of accomplished musicians including bass player Aongus Ralston from The Waterboys, Jason Duffy on drums who has played with The Corrs and Picture House.

Also included in the line-up is the legendary keyboards player James Delaney who worked with Van Morrison among many others and Danny Tobin, who played guitar with Honor Heffernan and well-known blues kings, The Business.

The origins of Smith’s last project goes back three years when he started to write down some of the words of the songs.

He would then bring the outlines of the songs to Danny Tobin and the two worked on the arrangements.

Once the songs were honed and tightened they were then recorded in the Hell’s Fire Studios in the Dublin mountains. It's a lot of work. A long, yet satisfying journey.

“It’s just great to get is all done, to get the finished product completed which started out as words on a piece of paper.”

Words taken from the life of true bluesman who has turned the "bad situation," that Winehouse referred to, into something creative and positive.