Sanchez was born in New Orleans on the River Road along the levee of the Mississippi River. He grew up in New Orleans' blue-collar Irish Channel neighborhood, which is a historic home to stevedores and river pilots. Sanchez is a songwriter, musician, singer, producer, writer and actor. In January 2010, Off Beat Magazine gave Paul three Best of the Beat Awards; Songwriter of The Year, Best Song of the Year, and Best Folk/Rock Album for Stew Called New Orleans, which was his duet record with friend and collaborator John Boutté. In April of that same year, Gambit Weekly awarded him Best Roots Rock Performer at The Big Easy Awards.
His first musical endeavor was in the New Orleans band The Backbeats. Along with him was Vance DeGeneres, Steve Walters, and a drummer named Fred LeBlanc, who he would encounter later on.
He has released 11 CDs as a solo artist, while also releasing 11 CDs as a founding member of the New Orleans rock band Cowboy Mouth. He left the "Mouth" in 2006, just after a flood had upended the city of New Orleans. Sanchez was on tour with the Mouth when Hurricane Katrina ravaged the gulf. After that, he stayed on tour and wrote a post-Katrina tribute, "Home", which was featured in the Starz documentary New Orleans Music in Exile.
In 2008, Sanchez released the rewritten version of his first solo release Jet Black & Jealous. The Eli Young Band made the song title their major label debut on Universal/Republic. Jet Black & Jealous made its debut at number 5 on the BillboardCountry Album Charts in September 2008. In 2009, he published a book of essays entitled Pieces Of Me, which deals with such things as the sense of life, loss, and rebuilding after the flood.[4]
For the last few years, Sanchez has been writing, recording and performing a musical adaptation of New York Times Best Seller Nine Lives. Nine Lives has been performed in New York City at Symphony Space, Washington DC at Sixth & I, Los Angeles at Fais Do-Do and New Orleans at Le Petite Theater, The CAC, The Ellis Marsalis Center, and Tulane University's Dixon Hall.
He has appeared on the HBO series Treme as himself.
Discography
Cowboy Mouth studio albums
Word of Mouth · 1992
It Means Escape · 1994
Are You With Me? · 1996
Word of Mouth (Remix1) · 1996
Mercyland · 1998
Easy · 2000
Uh Oh · 2003
Voodoo Shoppe · 2006
Cowboy Mouth live albums and EPs
Mouthin' Off (Live & More) · 1993
Mouthin' Off (Live & More) (Remastered) · 1997
Cowboy Mouth LIVE! (limited edition 5-song EP issued with Mercyland) · 1998
^PAUL SANCHEZ, JET BLACK AND JEALOUS
May 1, 1992. Offbeat Magazine by Rick Coleman
Paul Sanchez is a talented songwriter, musician and singer. A veteran of new york's "anti-folk bohemia", Sanchez displays a remarkable lyrical gift in this all-acoustic collection of personal vignettes of loves and loves lost.