Biography
“I’m New Orleans born, New Orleans bred and when I die I’ll be New Orleans Dead”
Stew Called New Orleans
Paul Sanchez, John Boutte'
Paul Sanchez was born in New Orleans at Sara Mayo Hospital on Jackson Avenue and Thcoupitoulas across the street from the Mississppi River and his life sounds like the history of Louisiana itself.
His mother's father, George Payne, was an Irish cop in the in the Irish Channel neighborhood of New Orleans which is where Paul was born and raised. Grandpa Payne lost his legs to diabetes and his mother, Sylvia, dropped out of school in the 8th grade to get a job so she could take care of her father, mother and younger siblings until, at the age of 18, she met his father.
Joe "Black" Sanchez. Born in White Castle, Louisiana, his father was Islenos and had come over to America from the Canary Islands like thousands of his countryman. When Paul's grandmother died in the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1917, his grandfather gave his father to an Islenos family he knew in the Delacroix Islands in Louisiana. Paul's father dropped out of school in the third grade to work as an indentured employee on the family's shrimp boat, he slept on the floor of the boat, he ate what he could catch in the Gulf of Mexico from the age of 9 to the age of 16 when he ran away to New Orleans and got a job as a waiter at the Fairmount Hotel.
Paul grew up in the 60's with five brothers and five sisters.He listened to the music they tuned into on WTIX AM which still played singles by local artists like Art Neville's All These Things or Ernie K-Doe's Mother-In -Law. The older siblings would see artists Irma Thomas or Deacon John at sock hops around town, buuujngbtheyr tevurds and those 45s played in the house on First Street. They were a poor family and music was in the air, on the radio, coming out of windows, "it was the only thing we could get free that gave us joy", Paul has said in looking back.
Paul started playing music in New Orleans at the age of fifteen in bars around the French Quarter.
He lived in New York in the 80's and learned the craft of songwriting as part of the Anti Folk scene in the East Village.
Paul spent the 90’s and early 2000's making 11 albums and touring the U.S.A. and Europe with New Orleans rockers, Cowboy Mouth but after losing his home and possessions in the aftermath of Katrina and the flooding of New Orlean, he left the band he had helped form in 1992 and went home to New Orleans to rebuild his life. He was the only member of the band who lost everything and said at the time, "it wasn't as much fun to be in a tour bus anymore when my friends and family were looking for places to live back home in New Orleans".
Paul has 20 solo releases beginning with Jet Black And Jealous in 1992 which was a critics favorite and over thirty years later a favorite with fans.
His 20th release Between Friends… and Me, was awarded Best Roots Rock Album at the Best Of The Beat Awards in 2023.
Other awards include:
Best Roots Rock Artist 2019
Best Roots Rock Album I'm A Song, I'm A Story, I'm A Ghost 2019
Best Roots Rock Artist 2018
Best Roots Rock LP - One More Trip Around The Sun 2018
Song Of The Year - One More Trip Around The Sun 2018
Songwriter of the year 2017
Best Country/Folk Songwriter in 2017
Songwriter Of The Year 2014
Songwriter Of The Year 2009
Best Roots Rock Album - Stew Called New Orleans with John Boutte
Paul has also written songs for a musical about New Orleans,with Los Angeles based writer Colman deKay. Nine Lives, based on the New York Times Best Seller by Dan Baum, has been performed at theaters in New Orleans, Los Angeles and New York.
He appeared as PAUL SANCHEZ,(himself), in the HBO series TREME, Paul's other acting credits include:
Detective Dillard in NCIS: New Orleans,
Bailiff in Bonnie and Clyde on AMC
Jury Foreman in Your Honor starring Bryan Cranston
Man With Glasses, ironically in The Irish Channel, in Interview With A Vampire on AMC.
Sanchez has written songs performed by:
Darius Rucker, Hootie and The Blowfish, The Eli Young Band, Kevin Griffin from Better Than Ezra, Susan Cowsill, John Boutte Irma Thomas, the Soul Queen of New Orleans, Debbie Davis Carmela Rapazzo, Galactic, Ted Hefko, Margie Perez, Shamarr Allen, Glen David Andrews, Bonerama and many more.
After surgeries to his throat in 2018 and again in 2019 left him unable to sing Paul was told he would never perform again. He did not accept that he had to give up something he loved so Paul sought vocal therapy and voice lessons. Devoting six hours a day over a four year period. Slowly his voice returned but while rehabbing he used the time to teach himself piano and to learn the songs of writers like Cole Porter, Hoagy Carmichael and Henry Mancini who he his mother had listened to when he was a boy.
At the same time, Paul was reading Doctor John's autobiography and in it Mac said that when he got into his sixties he realized he wanted to make music that was a bit more sophisticated, This resonated with Paul and he began to write songs on piano in the styles of these classic songwriters.
When his voice returned he was ready to record the new songs and embrace a style of music he had always loved but never performed and for his guide into the world of Jazz he chose Shamarr Allen.
Shamarr was mentored by the Jazz greats of New Orleans like the late Bob French. He and Paul met after Katrina and though twenty years different in age and from two different cultures in New Orleans they became friends and have played shows and collaborated on several projects together including Bridging The Gap, a duo record, and the soundtrack for Nine Lives.
Shamarr assembled a talented band of young jazz players which include his son, Jerrel Allen on drums, Cameron Watson, (whose father played drums for Paul Sanchez and Rolling Road Show 15 years ago), on piano), and Javier Metoyer on stand up bass guitar as they record Paul’s first Jazz record, Love Always Finds A Way, to be released in the spring of 2025.