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| Evolve Group Helps Spread the Word About Next Great American Blues Guitarist |
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| Thursday, 24 May 2007 | |
 New Jersey blues guitarist Patrick Droney has learned more lessons about overcoming personal setbacks and showing charity toward others than most adults do in a lifetime.The 14-year-old Linwood resident suffers from Von Willebrand syndrome, a rare blood-clotting disorder, yet he has motivated himself to do charity work for even less fortunate youth through his skills as one of America's most promising young blues musicians. He won the Nestle Corp.'s "Very Best in Youth" award for his philanthropy in 2005 and the Robert Johnson Star Award for the country's most promising young blues musician in 2006. As the blues award winner, he opened a concert for Robert Lockwood, Jr. in Hazlehurst, Miss. Droney and his band will perform in Whitney Chapel at Centenary College in Hackettstown on Saturday. The concert will be filmed for a forthcoming DVD to be released by DreamMakers. He is currently working with producer Jason Casaro, recording studio tracks at Barbershop Studios in Lake Hopatcong, on his forthcoming debut CD. The recording will include his original songs and covers of James Blunt, Joe Bonamassa, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Eric Clapton. "It's a blues-rock kind of CD. There's some blues with a rock edge to it," he said. "There'll be a lot of feeling and soulful stuff. We'll have the Hammond B3 organ screaming on all the songs." He writes songs about relationships and everyday events in life. His original songs include "Bright Side,""Reaction,""Someday" and "Not That Special." He also has written an instrumental, "Barbershop Jam." "I find inspiration from experiences that I'm having and that I see others having as well," he said. "I want to tell a story and really capture the audience with the story in the song." Droney was born with a rare, inherited blood-clotting disorder, Von Willebrand syndrome, on July 24, 1992, in Lancaster, Pa. Because of the disease, he is prone to bruising and frequent nose bleeds. Unable to participate in sports, he turned to guitar for inspiration. "I was taught from a young age that even though I have an illness, not to let it affect what I do," he said. His older sister, Josephine, also suffers from the disorder. Both of them formed a charitable foundation called Community Service Birthday Party to help other children with severe illnesses in 1999. For their efforts, Josephine and Patrick have received the Nestle Corp. "Very Best in Youth" awards in 2003 and 2005, respectively. His father, Dr. Tim Droney, 50, is a cardiac anesthesiologist and musician. He encouraged his son to play guitar. From age 7 to 9, Patrick took classical guitar lessons from a local instructor in Lancaster. When he got home, he played blues licks that he had learned from listening to his father and from hearing recordings of Robert Johnson, B.B. King, Gary Moore, Joe Bonamassa, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Eric Clapton. "There wasn't much to do in Lancaster. One day I heard a lick on Eric Clapton's 'From the Cradle'album and I just knew I needed to play guitar. I spent a lot of my time playing guitar," he said. The Droney family moved to Linwood when Patrick entered sixth grade. He attended Belhaven Middle School and he is currently enrolled at St. Augustine Prep. After he started his own blues band, opportunities opened up for him to perform with and to meet famous blues musicians such as B.B. King, who called Droney "The Kid."Droney's favorite radio station is WMMR 93.3 in Philadelphia. Two years ago, Droney extended his charitable efforts to help musicians and other victims of Hurricane Katrina through the New Orleans Musicians Assistance Program and through the Red Cross and the Nestle Corp. Droney appeared at the Robert Johnson Blues Festival in May. He also recently started doing charitable work for underprivileged children through Heritage House and the Robert Johnson Blues Foundation in Mississippi. |
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