Chaz finds his path to happiness via Blues

Groove Tube with Jimi McDonnell – tribunegroove@live.ie

Award-winning blues guitarist, Chaz DePaolo plays a free show in Monroe’s Live on Thursday next, October 6. His latest Irish tour marks the release of Resolution Blues: An Acoustic Journey, a record which see Chaz unplug his electric and go for a more stripped-back sound.

“I always wanted to do an acoustic blues record, and I think to pay homage to the art form you really need to do something like that,” he says. “It’s more about the stories and the songs than it is about the guitar playing. And you know the Irish love a good story!”

The second song on the record is the title track, and Chaz explains how that one came about.

“Well, usually on New Year’s Eve I make it a point to go and write down all my resolutions for the year,” he says. “I was sitting in a diner in a town in New Jersey, where I was living at the time, and it was 12.35 in the afternoon. I was thinking about my life, I was going through some tough times, actually, as we all do. And I came up with that song.”

The blues has always been an art form that acknowledges trying times, but is there some triumph for Chaz in playing the music as a profession?

“I find it to be cathartic, very cathartic,” he emphasises. “I battle depression, so playing the blues helps me to deal with that. When I’m on stage, I’m not really thinking about anything else but the music. It allows me to write about my feelings, which all songwriting does – I can’t just say that about the blues.”

Chaz DePaolo is a respected and refined blues musician, and has proven his chops by becoming a regular at the BB King’s Blues Club in New York.

“They have two rooms at BB King’s,” he says. “They have a side venue called Lucille’s, and then they have the main room. I played the side venue for about 12, 14 years. One of the promoters, because I’d just been inducted into the New York State Blues Hall of Fame, asked if I’d like to do the headlining spot. We celebrated my 50th birthday there, actually.

A headline slot, in a venue founded by one of the most hallowed names in blues, is an alright way to turn 50. How does Chad feel about reaching half a century?

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.