West-coast blues rocker Paul Black was raised on gospel and country and played in rock bands as a young man until the defining moment when his cousin gave him tickets to see Stevie Ray Vaughan. From then on it was nothing but the blues. Paul soaked up everything he could lay his hands on. “I grew up in a religious household, so there was always gospel, but I was more into Led Zeppelin, Aerosmith and AC/DC.” recalls Black. “Then someone gave me a copy of Are You Experienced by Jimi Hendrix and after seeing Stevie Ray in concert, I went through musical history and dove into everything from Albert King, Buddy Guy and Gary Moore to Taj Mahal John Lee Hooker and T-Bone Walker.

After moving south to Victoria BC Black formed various blues bands eventually releasing an album under the name TAXI. On their inaugural release, TAXI won a spot on the Rocktoria compilation CD (100.3 the Q FM). The recording was also rated an impressive 8 out of 10 by rollingstone.com. An avid singer-songwriter, Paul has gone on to win the Vancouver Island Original Music Competition as well as first place in the province-wide Shaw Star Discovery Competition with judges from EMI, House of Blues, and Sony Records.

In 2010 Paul released his second album Blue Words to rave reviews and international rotation in Europe and the US, he has enjoyed success selling albums world-wide and has been captivating audiences with his live performances. “The last album which was some time ago due to a severed tendon in my left hand and life just getting crazy.” says Black. “This time around I had much more involvement in the overall sound on individual performances from every musician who played on it.”

On March 1, 2024, Paul Black will release his long-awaited third album Beautiful Sin, an incredible collage of blues-based rock, acoustic soul, and a touch of funk. With 10 original songs, a rousing rendition of “Brick House” by the Commodores, and a handful of excellent supporting musicians lending their talents to Black’s slow-burning, soulful sound, Beautiful Sin highlights Black’s prowess as a multi-talented musician, vocalist, and songwriter.

“COVID allowed me ample time to fine-tune performances as well as write new songs
such as “Live It Like Ur Never Gonna Die” which was written in under an hour with a coffee and my acoustic and then straight into the studio. “Better Man” is a song I wrote for the last album but felt it just didn’t sound right at the time, so it found its rightful place on Beautiful Sin.