Paul Sanchez

Paul Sanchez grew up in New Orleans, in the Irish Channel section on First and Constance, a working class Catholic neighborhood populated with hard working, hard living and fun loving German and Irish immigrants. Paul was number 10 of 11 children, raised by his widowed mother Sylvia, along with five brothers and five sisters. Sanchez, along screen writer Colman deKay, just released a musical adaptation of Dan Baum's book, Nine Lives, a New York times Best Seller. Nine Lives is the story of New Orleans in the forty years between Hurricane Betsy in 1965 and Hurricane Katrina in 2005 , as seen through the eyes of nine New Orleanians. The release features the talents of Tony Award winning actor Michael Cerveris and the star of the HBO series Treme, Wendell Pierce as well as actor/director/writer Harry Shearer and New Orleans legends Allen Toussaint, Irma Thomas, his good friend John Boutte', along with over a hundred New Orleans artists. "New Orleans' musical renaissance, so well documented in the HBO series Treme, has reached its apotheosis with this expansive project." John Swenson on Nine Lives in Stereophile Magazine July 2011 Paul appears in season one of the new HBO series, Treme, episode 4 which is titled after a song he wrote with long time collaborator, John Boutte' performing their song Foot Of Canal Street. John and Paul also appear together in episode one of season two of Treme performing their song Sisters, as well as the Johnny Mercer classic Accentuate The Positive. His first book, Pieces Of Me, is a collection of essays about life, music and love in the new New Orleans. begun as a series of blogs chronicling his return to New Orleans after the flood. Arriving in Manhattan in the mid-eighties, Paul refined his art in the flourishing "ant-folk" scene in the East Village along with artists like Michelle Shocked, John S. Hall and Roger Manning. This scene of songwriters, poets, performance artists and eccentrics had a lasting impact on his song writing which is audible still. He returned home to New Orleans in the early '90s to form the band Cowboy Mouth. Paul chose the name of the band after a play he was reading at the time by Sam Shepard, Cowboy Mouth,about the transforming power of rock n' roll. They appear as themselves in Steven Soderbergh's The Underneath. The original band was Paul, John Thomas Griffith, (The Red Rockers), Paul "Clem" Clement, (Woodenhead), and drummer Fred Le Blanc, (Dash Rip Rock). "Clem" left the band after six months and was replaced by former Backbeat bassist, Steve Walters, (The Normals), who left after recording the band's first two indie releases. Rob Savoy, (The Bluerunners, Creole String Beans) became the band's third bass player just before the Mouth signed their first major label deal with MCA. The Mouth's touring schedule kept Paul on the road for most of 16 years, through a fourth bass player, Mary Lasseigne, and a fifth one, Sonia Tetlow. Though Paul contributed greatly to the band's catalogue, his desire to make music that was closer to his heart and better demonstrated his talent as a songwriter led to a solo career. He appeared in director Tom Anton's film, At Last, a love letter to New Orleans which was filmed in 2005 just before the flood. Paul Sanchez and The Rolling Road Show, is a celebration of New Orleans music, communication and letting the good times roll. The band is made up of Paul's favorite performers, which include the many different styles, (rock, brass band, funk, folk, gospel and jazz), and is a real coming together of New Orleans musical community. Paul resides in the Treme' section of the city now. He continues to write, sing, live and breathe New Orleans.