When Plastic Paddy started playing one of its songs during a recent practice, the chords somehow seemed familiar. It wasn’t a traditional Irish folk song—one genre the band performs—but it had an atmosphere that made it feel like it was created long ago.
Then band member and banjo player David Leblanc started singing the lead part, and everything clicked: “She packed my bags last night, pre-flight. Zero hour, 9 a.m.”
Yep, Plastic Paddy was doing a shuffling, harmony-laden take on Elton John’s “Rocket Man”—rearranged for sure, but with many elements from the classic-rock number. The distinctive acoustic arrangement made it sound more like a forlorn U.K. pub standard than an artsy pop classic. It was one of several surprises in that vein the band has up its sleeves for shows.
“Dave has brought a number of pop tunes into the band,” said Doyle Stewart, who plays guitar and mandolin in Plastic Paddy. “He makes them fit the banjo, and we kind of pile in around it.”
Besides Stewart and Leblanc, the current lineup of Plastic Paddy includes Gabe Plank on fiddle, accordion and guitar; and Plank’s son, Hawkeye Bufkin Plank, on flute and banjo. The group also features Dayleen Goclon on a variety of instruments including guitar, mandolin, bouzouki and Irish drum. Plus there’s Sue Bennett, who now lives in Pennsylvania but joins the group when she is in town, Stewart said, playing ukulele, flute and Irish whistle.
No matter what the lineup is, everybody sings, an element that gives Plastic Paddy a distinctive sound among local folk artists.
Together since late 2014, Plastic Paddy features members of past and current Reno Irish folk groups such as 3-17 and Ceol A’lainne. Several of the members have also played together during folk sessions at Ceol Irish Pub on Tuesday nights.
The self-effacing name of the group is actually an insult toward people who claim to be Irish.
“I don’t know how much of this story I want to tell,” Stewart said. “But, yes, it’s somebody who claims to be from Ireland …”
Gabe Plank finished the sentence: “… but does not know the county where his grandparents came from.”
Along with those rearranged pop tunes and traditional Irish songs, Plastic Paddy has a list of sea shanties, a cappella folk songs, Romani/Balkan material and classic country tunes that they can play.
“Probably a good third of the songs on our big list have something to do with maritime stuff,” Gabe Plank said. When asked why they decided to go that route, he simply held up his accordion.
“I picked this up back in about 2024,” he said. “I had a (musical) mentor; his name was Skip Henderson, and his band was Skip Henderson and His Starboard Watch. They played every Thursday down in Oakland, Calif., at a place called Quinn’s Lighthouse. They had a six-piece band, and all they did was maritime. So, when we started to play together here, there were these songs that I always wanted to play.”
Similarly, Goclon has a particular interest in sea shanties. She’s the Plastic Paddy member who brings those song styles to the group, often via sheet music.
The band’s diverse list of songs—currently at a whopping 150—becomes a challenge, in some ways, when the group has a show to play.
“Oh gosh, it’s been at least 12 years since I got involved in sea shanties,” she said. “I don’t know if you’ve heard about Shay Black. He’s an Irish guy, and he’s very popular in Ireland, and listening to him taught me a lot about singing those. And they’re just fascinating, because they tell a story.”
Regarding the band’s other Irish material, Stewart said several Plastic Paddy songs were part of the 3-17 arsenal, and he learned others from the former NPR show The Thistle and Shamrock.
“You find a song, and then you do to it what you think has to be done with it,” Stewart said. “We try to mix things up a lot and play songs that people might know, but then do something they don’t know.”
Added Gabe Plank: “We don’t really do, honestly, a lot of traditional songs. But I think the genre we inherited from 3-17 was not really contemporary Irish, either. It was a little older, but also not traditional. So, somewhere in the middle.”
The band’s diverse list of songs—currently at a whopping 150—becomes a challenge, in some ways, when the group has a show to play. For instance, their next gig is what Stewart called the band’s biggest yet: a 40-minute opening set for Celtic rockers the Young Dubliners on Saturday, Aug. 22, at Brewery Arts Center in Carson City.
“The challenge, I think for me, is that we don’t want to play something that they are going to play,” Gabe Plank said of the Young Dubliners. “I don’t even want to approach the genre that they are doing, because they’re going to be fast-paced. And we want to be different because … well, we are different.”
Added Stewart: “But it won’t be that hard to figure out. The main thing is to have fun.”
It will be a reunion in some ways. The band 3-17 had opened for the Young Dubliners in the ’10s, Stewart said, and Goclon said she’s seen them several times.
“I first met them years ago on the East Coast,” she said. “They are really so nice, down to Earth. And Keith (Roberts, band founder and singer) is just a sweetheart, so it’s going to be fun to see them again. … I just think that we’re here to entertain the people, make them happy and share what we have. And that makes me happy, to get people reacting to your music and see them really get into it.”
This sense of music-fueled camaraderie around Plastic Paddy is infectious.
“It’s honestly a pleasure to play with everybody in this room,” Leblanc said. “I’m always tired getting off work, and I’ll be like, ‘Do I want to go to band practice?’ And then whenever I get here, that all goes away, and I’m having so much fun. It’s so nice to hang out. When you get home afterward, you’re kind of jazzed.”
Plastic Paddy will open for The Young Dubliners at 7 p.m., Saturday, Aug. 22, at the outdoor stage at Brewery Arts Center, 449 W. King St., in Carson City. Admission is free. Find out more about Plastic Paddy on its Facebook page.