Saturday, August 2, 2003 Paul Sprawl

We “discovered” Paul at Folk Alliance. He was playing in the foyer when the elevator door opened. Bare feet, sitting on his guitar case, playing some amazing licks and holding a crowd. It was amusing, really, to think that these people had been waiting 20 minutes for an available elevator, and then when one came, the chose instead to keep listening to the music.

Paul plays hard with his guitars. He thumps them, taps and plunks them, draws out percussive rhythms while weaving melodic runs that are rather astounding. On stage, he’s all about the music. And when offstage, his intense openness is disarming. We stayed up late that night, and had a blast hanging out with Paul. It’s hard to part with good company, I was sorry to see him head down the road.