Paul Sanchez shared the New Orleans vibe

Groove Tube with Jimi McDonnell – tribunegroove@live.ie

A songwriter who likes to tell a story, Paul Sanchez plays Monroe’s Live on Thursday, February 2. New Orleans native, Paul is currently on a European tour that also takes in the Netherlands and the UK. By the time he’ll return home, Donald Trump’s inauguration, with all its pomp and ceremony, will be well over.

“I’m glad I’m wasn’t in America when he became president,” Paul says. “My prognosis for him is I wish the best for us as a people, and I hope the best parts of him can manage to surface, and I hope that as a country that we can endure.”

Paul’s disdain for Trump is not much of a surprise, given the way the singer views his hometown.

“In New Orleans, we don’t consider ourselves part of the United States as much as we consider ourselves the northern-most point of the Caribbean,” he says. “There’s a vibe to life there, it’s on a lower flame to the rest of the United States. The music, the food and having a good time are all three big priorities. It affects the way you walk, the way you talk, and it sure affects the way you sing and play.”

Ireland is another place that has influenced the way Paul sings and plays. His most recent album, Heart Renovations, features several songs inspired by the time he spent here.

“I’d never been to Ireland before I went there a year and a half ago,” Paul says. “And I just immediately fell in love with this place where an entire country loves music as much as my city of New Orleans. Where there are people carrying instruments on their back, and every pub I walked into had live music.

“There’s just a beautiful respect for not just music, but artists,” he adds. “The Samuel Beckett Bridge in Dublin – I never saw a bridge named after a playwright in America! So, I was swept away by how much the Irish love their music and their culture.”

There’s a song called In Galway on the album. How did that one come about?

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.