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PAUL REDDICK

www.paulreddick.ca

Paul Reddick upsets conventional wisdom in the popular music field.  How many so-called “bluesmen” do you know who are passionate about early American music; love bird watching and draw inspiration from the language of poetry?

Paul is not a walking contradiction, or a piece of fiction.  He is a grounded, articulate, witty musician who understands the role that beauty — such an evocative, often unfashionable word — can play in the art that he creates.

Starting with his devotion to early American music, Paul Reddick listened closely to Muddy Waters, Sonny Boy Williamson and Howlin’ Wolf, and picked up the harmonica at the age of 12 — and had mastered the instrument by the time he was 15.  Later, his tastes widened to include early country music, jazz of all kinds, and a whole variety of other “roots” music; his iPod covers Sleepy John Estes, Miles Davis, the Carter Family and Little Richard.

Reddick formed the groundbreaking blues band The Sidemen in Toronto in 1990, releasing three albums of original material.  He and his revolving group of players spent a decade hammering out the blues across Canada and back and forth across the United States.

Paul Reddick and the Sidemen released the critically acclaimed Rattlebag on NorthernBlues in 2001, as he moved the emphasis toward a solo career.  Produced by roots music authority Colin Linden, Rattlebag was described as a masterpiece of “hard blues for modern times”.  Praise came from both sides of the border, along with nominations for both W.C. Handy Awards and the Juno Awards.  The band also won three Maple Blues Awards in early 2002, including “Album of the Year” and the nod for Reddick as “Songwriter of the Year”.

It was followed by Villanelle, a quiet, calmer, more reflective album that earned even more critical applause.  The widely acclaimed album continued re-styling the traditional past, sidestepping convention as it searched for new possibilities in blues music.

In addition, Reddick’s music has been used in a variety of television shows and movies, and — surprisingly, and he still doesn’t know how it came about — in a Coca Cola commercial that has been seen on U.S. TV for two years.

SugarBird brings the Reddick story up to date.  SugarBird, his most realized work to date, is once again produced by Linden, who adds his superlative guitar playing to every track.  Linden co-writes the songs with Reddick, and the album includes two of Linden’s compositions.

Reddick continues to perform in Europe once or twice each year, plays festivals across Canada, and is in demand as a session player — he’s appeared on recent CDs by Kathleen Edwards, Colin Linden, Susie Vinnick, Treasa Levasseur, David Baxter and others.

Meanwhile, Reddick continues to walk dogs as his daily job — which gives him, in the middle of a turbulent city, time to think and the space to let his imagination fly with the birds.