As dedicated a drifter as the day is long, independent songwriter Pat Reedy holds the reputation of a touring musician with more miles, more stories and more freewheeling spirit than most; all a result of his unconventional life experiences.

 

He's been a hobo, a miner, a heavy equipment operator, a forestry worker, and jack of all trades, writing songs on scraps of paper along the way.  Pat learned guitar as a street busker in New Orleans after hitchhiking there upon being released from probation in his native Chicago. In the decade he called New Orleans his home base, he spent the hot months riding freight trains across the US and Mexico, working day jobs and busking in his travels.  He found the best paying short term work was to be found in the big, cold western states, Wyoming and Montana, so spent a lot of time in that part of the world, always returning to winter, often in abandoned houses, in NOLA. The threat of frostbite and death on the northern rail lines kept him going south until the sun of late spring thawed the highline.

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Pat was a founding member of Sundown Songs,  with Kiki Cavazos and Jesse Kammerdeiner, in New Orleans, recording Like a Jazz Band in Nashville, the title a riff on being a country band in New Orleans. Alynda Segarra (Hurray for the Riff Raff) and Sam Doores (The Deslondes) joined the band and a second album, Far From Home, was recorded.Per Pat, "I've no idea how people found this.  It was homeless people playing music for other homeless people; we were living in abandoned houses in the 9th ward.  If you have an original CD, there is a strong chance that CD has, at some point, been on a freight train."  Despite this humble statement, Sundown Songs first album has an underground fan base, there is a weekend festival in Spain dedicated their catalog.  

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In 2015, Pat to move to Nashville, where he lived for another 9 years, recording three albums, touring the United States and Europe and continuing to work in construction.  Pat has now moved back to Chicago, from which he still tours internationally.  "Nashville was good to me, I just realized in 2024 that I didn't have to live there to be a professional musician.  They call it a ten year town, I got out in nine."

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Pat Reedy puts on two kinds of shows:  one iteration is an energetic, 5-piece, honkytonk band centered on two stepping, intended for dance hall themed bars like The Sagebrush in Austin Tx; the other, is more intimate, often solo performed, always engaging and often funny, story telling and lyric centered show in which Pat delves more deeply into the inspiration for each song. His versatility lies in the authenticity of his songwriting and his evident love for the old country sound of the 50's and 60's.