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Getting giddy over Paddy Gibney
January 2000
Patrick "Paddy" Gibney is magical -- like the haunted hills of his homeland, Ireland, wishing wells and moonlit fairy circles bathed in dew. Paddy's a local musician who understands the power of words and the spell of strummed chords.
Two of the most incredible nights of my life -- one in Wilmington and one in Fayetteville -- have had him in common.
The Dublin native, who came to America in 1987 on a soccer scholarship, plays every Saturday night at The Shanakee pub in Wilmington (910/343-9590), which is where I first heard him Jan. 30. It was a grand night of chicken wings, Guinness and laughter. Paddy painted the walls in U2 tunes, traditional Irish melodies and those ribald kind of drinking songs (like "Just a Friendly Little Cat" and "Who the **** is Alice?"). I had so much fun, I bought one of his tapes (recorded live at the pub) -- which gets me through the rest of the week until Saturday comes again.
Then I heard him perform his own songs at the New Moon multimedia arts gathering Sunday at Level Three in Fayetteville. The music was full-color with violinist Bill Ayerbe (who also plays with Paddy some nights at the pub and who pulls the plaintive voice of the violin from his instrument with powerful agility), pianist/singer Kerstin Hanson, percussionist Tyron Green, guitarist Robert Grummer and bass player Willy Lockett. There's a genuine kindness and a humbleness about Paddy.
When I complimented him on the performance at New Moon, he gave me an explanation -- tinged with a bit o' Irish brogue -- of how they'd only just rehearsed a few times together, he and the band, and he was so nervous.
Well, it was great. It's the kind of music that's simply beautiful without trying to be. I think that's the reason I like it so much -- the same reason my favorite musician of all time is David Wilcox (CDs: "How Did You Find Me Here," "Big Horizon" and "East Asheville Hardware"). It's not about a genre -- alternative, Celtic, pop, or whatever -- it's just about itself.
But you can feel a bit of the contemporary and traditional Irish streams that feed into Paddy's music rippling past your fingers as you swim through songs like his "Everyone's Death Diminishes Me" and "Make Love in Love" that he performed for New Moon. His first album of original music will be released in the spring. A CD single of his song "Diana" is already out.
You might be thinking, oh, jeez, not another bunch of pap about the princess, but this song kicks Elton John's butt. Seriously. It's mellifluous, it's original (not some half-baked remake of a song about another dead blonde) and it has a poetry that speaks to anyone who's ever lost a loved one: "Help me understand why it had to be/She would walk on water or so it seemed to me/It all must come from God with whom she'll live forever/Budded here on earth to bloom in heaven."
According to his Web site (www.prophecyweb.co.uk/shamrock), Thursday nights he plays either at Coaches on Bragg Boulevard or Huske Hardware House Brewing Co., 405 Hay St., in Fayetteville. Friday nights, Paddy's at the Radisson Hotel on Hay Street in Fayetteville.
Feb. 26 he'll play a special gig at Coaches for the national Guinness toast world record attempt. (At 11 p.m. everyone drinking Guinness makes a toast together. The bar owners will collect names of the participants and submit them to Guinness in an attempt to set a world record ).
Paddy also will play Feb. 27 at an all-day concert for Honduras hurricane relief at the Agri-Expo Center in Fayetteville.
Jen Mueller
© MAXMAG 2000
Keep An Eye On Paddy
April 2000
I wrote about Paddy Gibney about a year and a half ago after hearing him play at the Shanakee (now Loco Malley's) in Wilmington and Level Three in Fayetteville.
He recently released a second live album, "Shamrock 'N' Roll," recorded at the Radisson Hotel in Fayetteville with Bill Ayerbe on violin.
I love Paddy's voice and his style. On the latest live CD, you'll find a collection of pub songs including "Seven Drunken Nights," "Barnacle Bill the Sailor" and "Finnegan's Wake," as well as a few cover tunes like Guns N Roses' "Sweet Child O' Mine" and an interesting version of Garth Brooks' "Friends in Low Places." Warning: This music is not intended for the easily offended.
Paddy also writes his own songs and promises that his long-awaited album of original tunes will be out this summer. I can't recommend it highly enough.
Jen Mueller
© MAXMAG 2000