The Blues Are Back In Nottingham

Sunday Jam Session

The Paddy Maguire Band

Friday 20th January

From its humble birth in southern USA and its early growing pains in the Mississippi Delta, like that meandering river the blues has just kept a rollin’, travelling a long and constantly forking path, constantly being reshaped, redefined by each new generation of musicians drawn to its charms, from those early-days pioneers to today’s superstars. It has seen boom and bust in its popularity, ebbed and flowed in and out of fashion. But it is music of such soul and depth, with such power to take those who embrace it to a special place, that it will always be there.

In the 70s, an inquisitive young boy called Paddy Maguire was continually playing around with the variety of musical instruments laying around the family home, and soon getting a tune out of them. In 2010, guitarist/vocalist Maguire's musical journey of exploration and endeavour has put him among the cream of the latest generation of artists reshaping and re- energising the blues and creating music that, at its best, is as exciting, as soulful and as moving as you’ll find anywhere.

And live is where Maguire, his jam-club years in his pocket, shines brightest, he and his band performing with a potent mixture of power and finesse, the guitarist regularly pulling the trigger and unleashing visceral, mesmerising solos. And while they’re checking out the hot licks, it’s clear that many of the girls in the audience are equally taken by the good-looking guy with the spikey hair and charisma to spare. If you’ve got it…