Twin Cities based harmonica player, Paul Barry, has been playing professionally since the early 1980’s.  In 1983, he met West Coast Bluesman William Clarke and became a protégé of the late, legendary harmonica player, and lived with him in Los Angeles in 1985.
In the 80’s and 90’s, Barry and his Minneapolis-based band, frequently served as a back-up band to famed Chicago bluesman, Otis "Big Smokey" Smothers, whenever he performed in Minnesota.
Barry, also, has been active in promoting blues in the Twin Cities area that dates back to the late 1970's.  Over the years, he has brought to Twin Cities blues fans such artists as: Big Walter Horton, Sunnyland Slim, Eddie Taylor, Hubert Sumlin, William Clarke, Big Smokey Smothers among many others. 
In 2016, Barry released an album’s worth of material from 1992 where he backed Otis "Big Smokey" Smothers.  This was Smothers last studio recording.  The album "That’s Alright" was a wonderful surprise to the blues world and received high marks from blues critics and fans. 
Barry subsequently released two albums under his own name: "Talk Is Cheap" in 2016 and "Blow Your Cool" in 2018.  Both albums were well received, and "Blow Your Cool" was selected as Best Album of 2018 by the Minnesota Blues Society.   
In 2023, as a tribute to his mentor, William Clarke, Barry released the internationally acclaimed biography "Blowin' Like Hell, The William Clarke Story". Barry's book was inducted into the Minnesota Blues Hall of Fame in 2024 for Blues Art, Literature and Media.
Barry's newest album, "Pure Blues" was released in August of 2026, and features many of Minnesota's finest blues musicians as well as internationally recognized artists, Igor Prado and Tad Robinson.
The Paul Barry Blues Band, based in Minneapolis/St. Paul, specializes in Chicago and West Coast jump blues. and plays in local clubs and festivals in and around the metro area and state of Minnesota.

​"I taught Paul many things on the harmonica and he has become a fine player in his own right"
​William Clarke