Here's a redemptive tale about the sheer power of music.
Ten years ago, classical guitarist Pat Coldrick took to busking on Dublin's Grafton Street to make ends meet after the recession destroyed his bespoke furniture business.
Now the Co. Meath man is well on the way to selling out his first gig in the National Concert Hall with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra on the back of his growing reputation as a musician who’s built up his name with a DIY approach and a easy-going attitude to the sometimes rarefied world of classical music.
Coldrick (58, "going on 18") had been a self-taught professional guitarist for many years with Irish acts like The Memories, Tony Kenny, and the Paul Ashford Band in the seventies and eighties but the lack of a major breakthrough saw him store his guitar away in the attic when he was still a young man.
"I became very disillusioned with the music business and decided to give it all up and turned my back on music completely," the laid-back Navan man says.
"I went into woodwork and got on with my life and never thought I’d be involved with music again. I had a lot of dreams back in the day about doing stuff, things that are happening now, funnily enough . . . "
Then ten years ago, the death of a very close friend and the arrival of the recession forced a major rethink. "I just took the guitar out of the case one day and before I knew it I was playing the guitar again. I wrote a piece about my friend called The Lament, which has become such a big piece in the guitar repertoire worldwide now.
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"A strange feeling came over me to be honest," he continues. "I was 25 years away from music and I always felt there was something missing and I didn’t realise it was music and suddenly that little missing piece of the jigsaw just clicked and I haven’t put down the guitar since and a lot of my dreams seem to be coming true now.
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"I never thought I was any good at all. I literally went busking to earn a few quid and people started gathering around me and loving the music I was playing. I started feeling good about myself again because I was just too hard on myself back in the day."
Since then, Coldrick has released three albums - 2010's Cayendo, CityJam in 2014, and his latest Ophelia, which features contributions from Irish musicians Finbar Furey, John Sheahan, Daire Bracken and Peter Eades. He’s also played festivals in America, Solvenia, Germany and Russia.
His philosophy of ‘entertaining’ rather than ‘educating’ his listeners with sets including his own compositions and his interpretations of popular pieces from the guitar repertoire has been a large part of his success. He’s also won some high profile fans, including Joe Walsh of The Eagles, Horslips founding member and broadcaster Jim Lockhart, and Paul Brady.
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"I like to play music that I feel would attract a wider audience - very lyrical and melodic pieces." Coldrick says. "I mostly play my own compositions but I also do the music from The Deer Hunter and very unusual arrangements of stuff like Stairway to Heaven.
"The guitar can capture your soul. Very few classical guitar players would come to see me. The people who do are just ordinary people who want to hear music that they love."
You might say Coldrick has appeared out of the woodwork."It’s kind of taken off and this is all self-funded, I’ve no record company behind me. It was all done on a zero budget and I’ve built up a following online." he says.
On May 22 he takes on his biggest solo gig yet with a headline show at the 1200-seater NCH with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra.
"I did one concert in the NCH's Kevin Barry Room and that was sold out but I never thought I’d play in the main auditorium. I think we have 680 tickets sold so far and there’s a few months to go. It’s just a dream come true - from the end of Grafton Street to playing the NCH with the RTÉ concert orchestra.
"If you’d asked me twenty years ago what was my dream, that’s what I would have said."
Alan Corr @CorrAlan2
Pat Coldrick plays The National Concert Hall with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra on May 22nd
www.patcoldrick.com
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