SAN FRANCISCO — Paddy CASEY, the second-bestselling rock act in Ireland, looks a little disappointed as he scans the sparse audience that turned up during rush hour Friday for his debut here at the Virgin Records Megastore.
"You make more money busking," the singer-songwriter says with the self-deprecating manner that passes for stage patter. "At least you make money busking."
Bright blue eyes sparking under his long black hair, Casey plays 40 minutes of originals and the occasional surprise cover, such as Blackstreet's 1996 R&B hit "No Diggity," with only his voice and acoustic guitar. That one has the crowd bouncing and lets it know that Casey -- who stands a lot taller than his 5-foot frame would have you believe -- is full of surprises.
Backed by the same management team that broke Ireland's top seller, U2, almost three decades ago, Casey has been touring the U.S. for three months, mostly playing record stores and Hard Rock Cafes through shoddy speaker systems to audiences that don't have a clue who he is.
All of that could change quickly. On the heels of his recent showcase at Austin's South By Southwest Music Conference, his third album, "Addicted to Company (Pt. 1)," comes out today on Sony/BMG. Produced by Los Angeleno George Drakoulias, one of the founders of Def Jam records, "Addicted" came out in September in Ireland and was named album of the year in the Meteor Ireland Music Awards. Casey is MTV's featured artist this week, which includes a 20-foot-high billboard of his face in New York's Times Square. Thursday he will play on David Letterman's show. He plays the Wiltern in Los Angeles on May 5 opening for Scottish phenom, KT Tunstall.
If the rest of the country is as impressed with Casey as the San Francisco crowd was, he may have to start writing some happier songs.
Almost every one of the two dozen people who stood through his set bought his new disc and waited for his autograph. They lavished praise on his wistful guitar-playing, direct lyrics and powerful voice, so strong he could have played without the P.A. system. Newfans compared him with John Mayer and Jason Mraz but after spending time with his discs, they might have added Leonard Cohen, with whom Casey shares a knack for creating stark and pitiless landscapes.
"That's the happiest song I know," he tells them after opening his set with "Sweet Suburban Sky," a thick gray song about the end of the world, from his 1999 debut, "Amen (So Be It)."
