Son of an RAF pilot and artist & fashion-model mother, Paul Bruce was born in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1963. He spent much of his early childhood moving from place to place on account of his father's military assignments. Even at a young age, Paul felt a particular connection with the rural way of life - a connection which continues to subtly hint his work today.

From an early age, Paul was exposed to Opera thanks to his parents' love of the genre and his love of this art form continues to this day. He counts the works of Verdi, Puccini and Mozart among his favourites and cites Plácido Domingo, José Carreras, Montserrat Caballé, Renée Fleming and Jussi Björling as performers he most admires.

Though opera formed Paul's early musical impressions, his first purchase of recorded music was from quite a different arena. After hearing Don Williams being played on the radio, he bought The Greatest Hits - this made a particular mark on him. Soon after, Paul bought Johnny Cash's Greatest Hits and his love of Country Music was born. In the years that followed, Paul's collection and love of Country Music spiralled to include recordings by Willie Nelson, Matraca Berg, Gretchen Peters, Waylon Jennings, George Jones, Suzy Bogguss, Townes Van Zandt and Lyle Lovett - but perhaps the single biggest influence on Paul is singer/songwriter Steve Earle.

After seeing Steve Earle perform in London in 1996, Paul was mesmerized by Earle's charismatic performance. By now, Paul was performing cover versions at jam nights and open mic nights developing his own performance style. During this time, Paul was grateful to receive encouragement from friend and seasoned guitarist David Briggs, who inspired Paul to aim for new levels in performance and, significantly, urged Paul to develop the thoughts he was having and begin writing his own songs.

As well as performing successfully together many times, David also helped Paul discover other musical styles, bands and artists such as Led Zepplin, ZZ Top, Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix and Bruce Springsteen as well as many other brilliant but lesser-known artists found outside of the mainstream.

After years of performing other artists' songs, encouragement from his fiancée Jane, friends and family persuaded Paul to introduce audiences to his own work, drawing now upon his deep seated love of folk music, both from the old and the New World. With the help of Matylda Laurence's vocal coaching, management advice and artistic direction, Paul began to flourish as an artist in his own right.

In 2007, Paul enlisted the services of master producer and musician Jerry Playle. Jerry's musical versatility and production expertise helping Paul to bring his song writing and performance to life - the tracks he produced from these sessions are available to download now from www.mix2download.com and are also available on Paul's CD - click here for details.

Friend and guitarist Mike Molloy had already featured on the Playle-produced Border Café but late 2008 saw Paul and Mike begin a new musical partnership, gigging together as a well-received duo (performing Paul Bruce's songs with occasional covers) in early 2009.

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