Paddy Smith's Redemption Song

Paddy Smith is a Navan-based blues musician. On Friday he will fly out to New York to take part in a song contest run by local station Coast to Coast FM. A documentary on his life was nominated as one of the best short films at the recent Galway film festival. Smith has been an alcoholic for almost as long as he can remember. In his mid 40s now, many of the stories of his life involve drinking to frightening levels – and the trouble that that brought. He professes himself surprised to be going back to the USA. “I couldn’t believe it when I got the letter saying I was in the final of the song contest. The last time I was in the US, I ended up in prison with one of America' biggest drug dealers". All he had done was got involved in a bar fight, but that was enough to see him share a cell with Pedro Flores, one of the infamous Flores twins, who later turned states evidence against El Chapo Guzman, the notorious Mexican drug lord, who escaped from prison last week. Back home in Ireland tragedy struck. Paddy's daughter Ciara died from cystic fibrosis, and he began to pull himself together. Paddy is five years dry now, and music is his life. His immediate concern now is his trip to New York where he will perform his song “Let Those Blues In” in front of two judges – Jimi Kendrix, who has produced Jay Z and 50 Cent, and Music Mystro, who has produced for Mary J Blige and LL Cool J. If he was to actually win the competition – he’s in the last four - both men would work with him to try and turn his song into a hit.