Musical shenanigans abound as this West Michigan-based Irish pub band unfurls its debut CD during a busy month of performances, with two shows Saturday in Holland. (Story, video, podcast)
A Serendipitous Collection of Musicians: Paddy’s Cure (Photo/Anna Sink)
THE BAND: Paddy’s Cure
THE MUSIC: Traditional and contemporary Irish folk
WHERE YOU CAN SEE THE BAND: 5 p.m. Saturday at New Holland Brewing in Holland and 8 p.m. Saturday at the Curragh Irish Pub in Holland; 11:30 a.m. Thursday (March 17) at Dublin Square in East Lansing and 7 p.m. Wednesday at Larkin’s Restaurant in Lowell
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Even casual listeners spinning the new album by Paddy’s Cure will instantly soak up the buoyant Celtic music vibe – one that reflects a band that just really revels in what it’s doing.
‘Not About Us’: Paddy’s Cure relishes live shows.
“We absolutely love making music together,” says mandolinist Eric Bredin.
“We are a pretty tight-knit group and practice is a social event. It’s common to have friends and family participate in practice with us. To quote Rob (singer-guitarist Rob Leonard), ‘ Irish music is not a spectator sport.’ ”
The Lowell-area band that features Leonard on guitar and vocals, Bredin on mandolin, concertina and harmonica, Stan Dec on banjo and vocals, Brian Hauenstein on bodhran and Lindsay Bredin on cello, ukulele and vocals is gearing up for another busy St. Patrick’s Day romp this month.
And as Bredin puts it, Paddy’s Cure fills a niche “that’s surprisingly scant in the West Michigan music scene, and that is we are an Irish pub band. There are a lot of Irish rock/punk bands and traditional/Celtic bands, but we fall somewhere in between. We are all acoustic and play standards you’d hear the Makim and Spain Brothers and High Kings sing, but we also love to perform more modern Irish music like the Pogues and Flogging Molly.”
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That mix recently earned the band the 2016 Shammy Award for best Irish (Celtic) rock band in Michigan by MiIrish.com.
Members of the five-year-old group come from varied musical backgrounds, with Aquinas College alumnus Hauenstein saying he “learned the art” of playing the bodhran in pubs across Ireland during the 1990s.
ALL ABOUT ‘THE EXPERIENCE’ WHEN PERFORMING LIVE
“The only thing better than playing in the pubs of Ireland,” he says, “is playing alongside these great people.”
Leonard, a Midland native, played in high school cover bands and “cut his teeth” on Irish music at a pub in Virginia in 1989. Dec studied classical guitar at an early age; he also plays lead guitar in The Beanpoles, an Americana/rockabilly outfit.
‘Playing Alongside Some Great People’: Paddy’s Cure
Lindsay Bredin, who teaches English in Lowell, studied cello at the Interlochen Center for the Arts, while her husband, Eric, has played in numerous rock, folk, blues and shoegaze bands over the years, including Mike Vasas & The Beasts of Burden.
Leonard says “there’s a fair amount that you just couldn’t script ahead of time” when it comes to the forces that brought the band together — “just a serendipitous collection of musicians.”
Eric Bredin’s love of Irish music can be traced to seeing The Lash perform on St. Patrick’s Day as a senior at Michigan State University. He was struck by the way the enthusiastic crowd participated in the show, something Paddy’s Cure encourages to this day.
“When we perform, it’s not about us. It’s about everyone there and it’s about the experience,” he says. “Imagine sitting in a pub in Ireland with a group of musicians playing and a group of rowdies singing along, drinking, toasting, laughing, carrying on with their shenanigans. That’s the essence of a Paddy’s Cure show.”
PODCAST: Local Spins Live with Paddy’s Cure
Band members brought that approach to the studios of News Talk 1340 AM (WJRW) this week for Local Spins Live, performing a song on the air and chatting about their development as a band. Listen to the radio podcast here, with a video of their performance below.
Even the lively milieu of the band’s debut CD, which officially gets released March 21 at a private album-release party, can be attributed to the way it was recorded.
Tight-Knit Group With a Lively Fan Base: Paddy’s Cure.
“In an attempt to create an authentic reproduction of Irish pub music, we all stood around some strategically placed microphones in a room and just played,” Bredin says. “The idea is that the listener gets the feeling of sitting in the room right there with us. We recorded a dozen songs in a 2-1/2-hour span and ended up with eight or nine for the CD.”
Most of the songs are traditional Irish folk tunes, ranging from “The Leaving of Liverpool” to “Red is the Rose,” but there are two original tracks on the album as well: “Throwdown at Larkin’s” and “April McGuire,” both inspired by “real people and real events” in Lowell.
The group also aims to give back to that community: All proceeds from sale of the new CD will benefit the Hauenstein Neuroscience Center at Mercy Health in honor of late philanthropist and band fan Ralph W. Hauenstein, who was Brian Hauenstein’s grandfather.
“We’re at a good place right now,” Bredin says. “We are, of course, very busy during the holiday season (March), but stay plugged in the rest of the year with ‘Halfway to St Paddy’s Day’ gigs in September and festivals in the summer months. We have a lot of repeat venues, but are always looking for new pubs and festivals to play.”
For more about the band and its upcoming schedule, visit paddyscure.com.
VIDEO: Paddy’s Cure, “Galway Girl” (Local Spins Live)
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