The Casey Buzz

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Irish Voice Entertainment

The Casey Buzz

April 9, 2008

By Mike Farragher

I’M not sure what’s more shocking: that MTV has actually started playing videos again, or that they’ve named Dublin-born Paddy Casey as “buzzworthy.” Indeed, it would appear that his third full album, Addicted to Company, is opening doors for this singer songwriter.

When you consider the fact that he was busking on the streets of Dublin 15 years ago, a practice that is hip again thanks to the runaway success of Glen Hansard’s film Once, you could hardly call Casey’s career trajectory an overnight sensation.

Apparently funded by the blockbuster success of his 2003 LP Living, Casey has invested in his career by flying out to LA and working with producer and Def Jam co-founder George Drakoulias.

The investment paid off. “Fear” is the breakout single that made Casey buzzworthy, and it’s quintessentially Irish in so many ways.

There is a vaguely Celtic melody at play here, and like most Irish confronted with the success he had with Living, he worries that the sky is falling.

“I’m scared that my child won’t live a long time/with your murder and rape and your drug money crime/but I pray my child is happy, Lord, and I hope she never sings this song,” he sings.

Casey vacillates between the folk earnestness of David Gray and the blue-eyed soul of Hall & Oates throughout Addicted to Company, making each track a nice surprise when it blasts out of the speakers.

Though he looks the part of a sensitive folkie, Casey has some bite to him. “You’ve been walking in the shadows while the rest walk in the light/girls all look so pretty/the big ones and the small/but they don’t look in the shadows so they don’t see your kind at all,” he sings to a “lonely soul walking ‘round this rock and roll” on the distorted “City.”

Tracks like “No Diggity Grandma’s Hands “sports some nice gospel type harmonies in the background, while “Addicted to Company” is a delicious slice of blue eyed soul and Casey plays to his strengths as a singer on this particular track.

Unlike most of the acoustic strummers coming out of Ireland lately, Casey mines the root cellar of blues and soul instead of the bitterly sweet aroma from the coffee house for his inspiration.

Casey swung into New York last week for a show at Mercury Lounge and a gig with David Letterman, but will return again on April 16 at the Luna Lounge in Brooklyn.

For more information, log onto PaddyCasey.com and find out what the “buzz” is all about!

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