Paul Ely Smith
I’m a musician living in Palouse, WA with my wife Dona, my son Peter, and my border collie Gracie. I compose, produce, and record music, and sometimes build musical instruments. I play many string instruments and styles of music. Besides my somewhat quirky guitar-playing, I also play Irish and North American fiddle music, piano, mandolin, banjo, al’ud, djembe, krar…
Currently I’m finishing my opera/musical "Cassandra," and I perform occasionally with Seattle-based performance artist, Thomas Arthur. In Spring of 2006 I released a CD of music I have composed for Thomas Arthur called "Handmade." I’m also currently a member of a traditional Irish music band called “Potatohead,” which released a CD called "Palouse Irish" in 2005.
In the 1980’s I released two records on the Flying Fish label, "Mysterious Barricades" (1982) and "Ellipsis" (1984), the latter being with Seattle musicians William Pint and Robert Kotta. Besides performing for several years with William and Bob as “Ellipsis,” other groups that have performed my music include the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Chanticleer, the Pacific String Quartet, and the Northwest Chamber Orchestra.