Former NY Gov. David Paterson has a band. We checked it out.
WNYC News | Jan 12, 2024
It was the night before the State of the State address, and some of New York’s most powerful elected officials were huddled shoulder to shoulder in a dimly lit bar.
The gathering was not about Gov. Kathy Hochul or her legislative agenda. It was about a different New York governor — one who was nervously awaiting his cover band’s Albany debut.
“People say, ‘You've spoken in audiences all over the world. Why would you be frightened?’” former Gov. David Paterson told Gothamist from his spot at the corner of the bar. “I said, when I spoke all over the world, I didn't have a guitar in my hand.”
Paterson, a Harlem Democrat who left office in 2010, has his place firmly secured in the New York history books. He was the first Black governor. He was the first legally blind governor. He guided the state through a tumultuous period — and, in some cases, may have added to the tumult himself — after Gov. Eliot Spitzer resigned in 2008.
At the bar this week, he made more history: As probably the first governor to front a cover band in the state capital.
