Free Live Music

Playing Wednesday Dec 31:
Paul O’Brien

Paul O'Brien is a singer, songwriter and instrumentalist with a gift for going straight to the emotional heart of the story, and taking his listeners with him. Born and raised Irish Catholic in an English inner city, he spent the first twenty-odd years of his professional life playing traditional Celtic music for pub gigs, folk festivals, folk clubs and private concerts throughout the UK, Europe, the US and the Middle East. At age 38, finding himself burned out, creatively stifled and desperately unhappy, he turned off and checked out. In 2004 he left the UK and his music career behind, moving with his family to Canada's Pacific Northwest for a fresh start as a classroom teacher in Victoria, BC.

He hadn't counted on Canada, though. Wasn't expecting to fall in love with his new home, or to forge a visceral emotional connection to the land, its people and history. The immigration experience created a tectonic shift in O'Brien, unleashing a creative energy he had long suppressed. Suddenly, the gifted songwriter thrashing around inside him wanted OUT. While teaching full time, O'Brien wrote and recorded two CDs of original songs, both produced by Juno Award nominee Joby Baker: Sacred Lines (2006) and Plastic (2008). Both met with overwhelmingly positive response; Plastic was included in prominentTopTen Best Albums of 2008 lists published by Penguin Eggs Folk Magazine, BBC Radio (Folk Roots) and CBC Radio.

Paul O’Brien Website