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artist profiles...
Paul Sprawl combines percussive guitar techniques with bottleneck, tapping, harmonica and
a baritone voice like the wind reaching out across the desert. His guitar is like crackling fire and riding bandits.
His songs tell stories of politics, love and romance, the down trodden, and the interesting lives of those he
meets all over the world.
He's put out eight cds of his songs in the last ten years. What kind of music is it? It is Heavy Wood. It's Psychedelic Roots. It's Americana.
He has toured six to eight months a year for the last 11 years, performing in 40 states in the USA with shows in Canada and Germany. Since his 1999 cd, Blue Suitcase,
produced by Lee Townsend (Bill Frisell, etc.) for the German label, Intuition,
he's put out seven more full~length cds on his own labels, Vagabond Music and Blue Moon Scarecrow.
He established a small national audience by traveling around in a van going to open mics. More art than entertainment; this is creative work with life commitment - with influences like... Skip James, John
Cage, Joni Mitchell, Harry Partch, Jimi Hendrix, Chris Whitley, David Foster Wallace, Ed Harkins, Jean-Luc Godard, Jim Jarmusch,
William Gibson, Noam Chomsky, David Byrne, Laura Nyro, Pepe and Celin Romero, Charlie Haden, his brother's
bands, Nature, travels, jazz & rock bands, poets, and lots of strangers who wanted to talk.
Paul was born May 29, 1958 in Los Angeles, California.He grew up in Ventura, California and began performing in public before his teenage years. He spent some years studying music at UCSD and CalArts. He lived in Europe a couple times; once on an island and once on the continent.
In 1995 he moved into a van so he could spend more time on music; still going to work five days a week as an office
temp in a coat and tie. He saved money quickly and worked his last temp job in the Fall of 97. Things worked out and
he's been a full-time artist ever since. In January of 1998 at a house concert in San Francisco, he was asked by
producer Lee Townsend to make a record. Blue Suitcase, the product of that collaboration, was released in Germany in
1999 on Intuition Music.
In 2000 Sprawl hit the road on his own, with no business help, touring around California. Eight months of playing every little coffeehouse and campground
in the state convinced him to broaden his horizons. In 2001 he started traveling around the entire country, taking off
for 4 or 5 months at a stretch. He continues to travel around the USA and Germany, doing shows all year. He recently moved to Lawrence, Kansas.
quotes...
- "We first ran into Paul at a music conference two years ago, where he was performing to an enthralled audience in the elevator lobby. His highly percussive style is captivating, and his performance crosses the expanse from humorous to mesmerizing. Paul is a sort of American gypsy, taking to the road for long stretches, and packing in more performances than a presidential candidate during an election run. Last year, he demonstrated his skill in making music with almost anything, even a broken, out-of-tune banjo-mandolin that was hanging on the wall! This past year Paul has been touring and recording with the phenomenal harmonica player, Howard Levy."
-Tim Piazza (Concerts at the Cabin promoter - Evansville, IN)
- "Paul Sprawl is a fine songwriter and very original guitarist whose music reflects his colorful experiences as a constantly traveling musician. He certainly deserves wider notoriety. The effort to seek out his work will be richly rewarded."
-Lee Townsend (producer/manager)
- "Paul Sprawl's approach to guitar is beyond musicianship, it is performance art. His hands dance across the guitar with abandonment, from body to neck, drawing out rhythms and beats that fuse with mesmerizing harmonies. To compare him to another musician is to miss the mark completely. There is no one else like Paul."
-Tim Piazza (Concerts at the Cabin promoter - Evansville, IN)
- "I really enjoyed working with Paul. I think he is a unique talent and I really dug his material.
I thought we sounded really good together, and he can sure play guitar!"
-Howard Levy (keyboardist, harmonica player, composer)
- "Okay. The album is called Blue Suitcase, and it's on a German label. It came out in '99 and it's wonderful. In terms of the playing, you can really get inside what he's doing, in terms of studying the moves. There's stuff that he does that nobody else does."
-David Wilcox (singer/songwriter)
- "The kind of man who lands with a velvety thud on the stage and tears the house down with his originality, deep soulful voice, talented touch on the guitar and brazen fire bursting from his harmonica. I highly recommend seeing him live if he ever plays in your area of the world."
-Sultana Ali (singer)
- "The most amazing guitar player I have seen in 8 years"
-Sam Pacetti (guitarist, singer/songwriter)
- "Paul has taken the blues and used them in a unique way to tell his own songs and stories. Slide guitar, lightning finger work with both hands up the neck, percussion on the body of the guitar, and a mellifluous voice that slides and bends his melodies the way his slide guitar finds the notes on his frets. He has three albums out - we were sold on him last year when he sent us a copy of Lucky Hand - a self-produced album with just Paul and his guitar, and no overdubs or fancy studio tricks."
-Al Boyce (Old Kitchen Rug and Brewery House Concerts Promoter - Minneapolis, MN)
- "He is known for his guitar virtuosity - finger picking, percussion on his guitar and playing slide at full speed but it's his tunes that live with multiple rhythms that stop, drive, and bump but still pull you along. There is just enough structure to the songs to hold onto to without being bored and just enough flash to make your soul jump to keep up with the songs."
-Ryan Dettra (Owner - Café Eleven, St. Augustine, FL)
- "Paul Sprawl is a masterful guitarist who plays with such expertise that if you close your eyes, you think you are listening to three musicians (guitar, bass and drums) instead of one. Although his playing is reminiscent of Michael Hedges, his style is clearly his own unique creation. His remarkable musicianship is complemented by a rich, soulful voice. He dazzled our audience."
-Laurie Oudin (Owner - Main St. Café, Homestead, FL)
some venues performed at...
Double Mo Calgary, AB
Arcosanti Mayer, AZ
The Mad Linguist Prescott, AZ
7 Black Cats Tucson, AZ
Genghis Cohen Hollywood, CA
Highland Grounds Hollywood, CA
The Iguana North Hollywood, CA
Lestat's San Diego, CA
Twiggs San Diego, CA
SoHo Santa Barbara, CA
The Kuumbwa Santa Cruz, CA
Palookaville Santa Cruz, CA
Bazaar Café San Francisco, CA
Hotel Utah San Francisco, CA
Mo's Melody Mansion San Francisco, CA
Stella's Denver, CO
Sweet Rockin' Coffee Denver, CO
Nyland Co-Housing House Concert Lafayette, CO
Sweet Bean Café Ft. Meyers, FL
The Main St. Café Homestead, FL
The Bamboo Room Lake Worth, FL
Under the Oaks House Concert Lutz, FL
Guinevere's Orlando, FL
Leu Gardens Orlando, FL
Underground Bluz Orlando, FL
Café Eleven St. Augustine, FL
Twilight Tampa, FL
Eddie's Attic Atlanta, GA
The Red Light Café Atlanta, GA
Blues Fest 2003, 2007, 2008 Ingolstadt, Germany
Boise River Festival 2001 Boise, ID
Fitzgerald's Chicago, IL
Martyr's Chicago, IL
Uncommon Ground Chicago, IL
Concerts at the Cabin Evansville, IN
Checkpoint Charlie New Orleans, LA
Club Passim Boston, MA
Club Helsinki Great Barrington, MA
The Ark Ann Arbor, MI
The Bayfront Blues Festival Duluth, MN
Old Kitchen Rug/Brewery Concert Minneapolis, MN
Ginkgo Café St. Paul, MN
Blue Dragon Coffeehouse Albuquerque, NM
The Town Pump Black Mountain, NC
Six String Café Cary, NC
Neighborhood Theatre Charlotte, NC
The Evening Muse Charlotte, NC
Eno Commons House Concert Durham, NC
The Garage Winston-Salem, NC
The Hacienda Reno, NV
The Stephen Talkhouse Long Island, NY
The Omega Institute Rhinebeck, NY
Cain Park Cleveland, OH
Taffy's Main St. Café Eaton, OH
Rogue Valley Blues Festival Ashland, OR
Wild Goose Café Ashland, OR
Laurelthirst Public House Portland, OR
The Quiet Storm Pittsburgh, PA
Boardwalk Café Nashville, TN
French Quarter Nashville, TN
The Log-on Café Beaumont, TX
The Old Quarter Galveston, TX
Anderson Fair Houston, TX
Mucky Duck Houston, TX
Fiesta Arts Festival San Antonio, TX
Baylee's Blacksburg, VA
Hannah's Olympia, WA
Cafe Carpe Ft. Atkinson, WI
The Purple Fiddle Thomas, WV
The Blue Moose Morgantown, WV
factoids...
- drove a truck for Jimmy Cliff in the USA and Canada
- studied music at UCSD and classical guitar with Pepe and Celin Romero
- studied music at Cal Arts with Charlie Haden and James Newton
- was a college radio DJ and assistant Music Director
- was born and mostly raised in California
some people opened for...
Dan Bern (CA, MI)
Bob Brozman & Ledyard Kaapana (CA)
Dana Cooper & Shake Russell (TX)
Paul Geremia (NJ)
John Hammond (NY)
Jennifer Nettles (GA)
Kelly Joe Phelps (VA, NC, GA, FL)
Willy Porter (NC)
David Wilcox (CA, NV)
discography...
1999 Blue Suitcase Intuition Music
2001 Lucky Hand Vagabond Music
2002 Dirt Roads Vagabond Music
2003 Army of Dreamers Vagabond Music
2004 Wreckage Vagabond Music
2005 Howard Levy & Paul Sprawl Vagabond Music & Balkan Samba Records
2009 Great American Opera (w/ Worn Out West) Blue Moon Scarecrow
2009 Paul Sprawl Live Blue Moon Scarecrow
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