In the past, East York musician Paul Grady has had his songs covered by some prominent artists, namely Anne Murray, Emmylou Harris and the late John Allen Cameron, whom he became friends with.
Grady, who lives in the Mortimer and Greenwood avenues area with his wife, Cheryl, obviously wouldn’t mind if his third and most recent CD also attracted attention.
Produced and recorded in Toronto by well-known local musician-producer Ken Whitely and titled A Song For Paddy Clarke, it is a belated followup to his first two CDs, Little Things in 1998 and Almost Memphis in 1997.
“I met Ken years and years ago and when this batch of tunes was coming along it just seemed that it had that folky, bluesy quality that Ken would click with,” said Grady in an interview at a Danforth eatery.
Released in late fall, Grady, who was born in Peterborough and grew up in Lindsay and then Oshawa, bypassed the hectic Christmas holiday season and has just solidified plans for a CD release at Hugh’s Room, Toronto’s mecca of folk and roots, Tuesday, April 24.
Not surprisingly, to have his songs recorded by some major stars “was a lot of fun, it was a pretty exciting time.”
In fact he had the rare occurrence of hearing one of his own songs being covered on a Toronto radio station (by Anne Murray in the mid-1970s).
A connection helped Grady to get his songs recorded by the trio of well-known musicians. He became friends with prominent record producer Brian Ahern, who counted both Anne Murray and the late John Allen Cameron among his credits, and who is married to Emmylou Harris.
Unfortunately, as with so many talented artists, Grady got his foot in the door – but no further.
“I was actually with Anne’s management company in my early 20s. We did some demos, one for Capital Records, and the door didn’t open.”
In his late 20s he went back to university, completing degrees in English and theology at York University and the University of Toronto, and then settling into a fulfilling career as a “behaviour change coach” working with inner city kids in Toronto.
The music never stopped, though.
He performed in a Christian folk group in the ’80s. In the late ’80s he again hooked up with a music publishing firm owned by Anne Murray. He had one song, Daddy’s School, covered by Indie artist Rena Gaile.
“Actually it got a fair chunk of air play,” he said.
As the ’90s wore on, he finally decided to put out his own CD.
“I had a batch of songs and home studios were coming along at that point so it was a more affordable thing, and a lot more resources for independent artists – distribution and then online ordering came in.”
He also wound up singing on a kids video titled Hiccup City “that’s still on TreeHouse.”
“People come up to me as recently as six months ago, and say ‘Do you play kid’s music’?”
He currently leads a youth Christian folk group out of his church, Holy Cross Catholic Church on Donlands at Cosburn avenues.
In recent years, he said: “I haven’t done a whole lot of performances – the writing has been kind of the main passion.”
But that stands to change in the near future as he takes to the road in support of his new CD.
Check out Paul Grady’s website at www.http://indiepool.com/clientsites/paulgrady/flashindex.htm
