Move over thirty-somethings Molly Tuttle and Billy Strings, there is a new kid on the block. And she’s only 18! Her name is Muireann Bradley who sings like a teenager but fingerpicks as good as guitar-playing legends - the likes of Tony Rice and Tommy Emmanuel - did when twice her age.
Bradley is from Ballybofey in County Donegal, Ireland, an ocean away from the Mississippi Delta of the U.S. where much of the ragtime blues material she plays originated. She has become somewhat of an overnight sensation in Ireland and the U.K. following the release of her stunning debut album I Kept These Old Blues in 2023. If success is now measured digitally, then Bradly has been an instant hit - by last December her online performances had been viewed more than two million times.
Recording giant Decca now has Bradley in its camp and last month a remastered version of the album was released. As part of the promotion, she has begun a global tour with shows in New Zealand, Australia and then back to Europe via Florida. And, as might be expected, Nashville fits somewhere in the 2025 schedule.
The world trek kicked off at Auckland ‘s The Tuning Fork, a venue which has hosted some of Americana’s best, including Steve Earle, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Ralph McTell and Son Volt over the years. Rubbing shoulders in the shadows of that sort, was no problem for Bradley. She instantly made herself at home.
The daughter of a blues-loving musician Dad, Bradley lists classic blues artists - from Mississippi John Hurt to Memphis Minnie and Reverend Gary Davis to Elizabeth Cotten - as her early influences. And her inspirational acoustic interpretation of their work is simply stunning, with her acoustic authenticity having to be heard to be believed.
“My father would play this music constantly at home and whenever we went in the car and talk about it endlessly whether anyone was talking about or not, telling stories about the lives of these musicians as if they were legend, mythology or the evening news,” she said.
For Bradley, the transition from the studio to stage is somewhat seamless given that she has made much of the fact that there was little post-production or digital tinkering with the original 12 tracks.
“Each individual track on this album was recorded live in the studio and represents one entire take with me singing and backing myself up on guitar simultaneously. Most are either first or second takes,” Bradley said. “Nothing has been added or taken away, no overdubs or modern recording tracks of any kind have been used at all. So at least in some respects this album has been recorded in the same way as those classics of the 1920’s and 1930’s.”
And what Bradley does onstage with these classics is simply mesmerizing!
As on the album, she led off with the traditional ditty “Candyman” (slang for a drug dealer). It was made famous by the Rev Gary Davis and covered by numerous artists, including Bob Dylan. It was one of two songs by Davis in Bradley’s 16-song repertoire, the second being his 1800’s murder ballad “Delia.” Her interpretation of the Rev Davis’s work is poignant, given that he was posthumously-honoured at the Americana Music Association’s annual awards last September, though he died back in 1972.
There were also two songs - back to back - from Elizabeth Cotton’s collection. First the folk standard “Freight Train,” which is said to have been written when in her early teens, and the second “Shake Sugaree” is from generations later as Cotton composed it with her great grandchildren! Bradley’s interpretation of “Shake Sugaree” beautifully fused her high vocals with some melodic, but inventive, guitar pickin’ during the bridge progressions.
Mississippi John Hurt, perhaps the most covered artist among Bradley’s mentors, got his two murder ballads - “Stag O Lee” and “Frankie” - on the set-list. They are both standout tracks on the album and Bradley’s live interpretation stayed true to his rag-time influences.
The Memphis Mini/Kansas Joe McCoy classic “When The Levee Breaks” – written about the 1927 Mississippi floods – was not one of the songs on the original I Kept Those Old Blues, but added as the 13th track on the remastered version. Bradley again had her audience in raptures with her live version. It was a million musical miles away from Led Zeppelin’s much-hyped 1971 rock version.
But perhaps the highlight of the evening came on the finger-style blues standard “Vestapol,” the first song her father ever taught her to play. It was one of three instrumentals in the line-up. But “Vestapol” was the show-stopper, as her hands – one finger-picking the other fretting from top to bottom – worked overtime to top a simply jaw-dropping performance.
While the set-list was dominated by the album, there were some obvious exceptions when she deliberately diverted from classic blues.
First, she went country, with yet another version of the Hank Williams classic “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry.” Bradley’s high soprano – almost falsetto – vocals were tailor-made for this weepie. In fact, her treatment was reminiscent in voice texture of a cover by Kasey Chambers more than a decade ago.
And as an encore she went pure pop-folk with Bob Dylan’s “Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright” – much to the delight of the audience. And of course, once she was in full voice, the purists had only one person on their minds. And it wasn’t Dylan. It was Joan Baez!
Yes, the Joan Baez who at 18 – the same age as Bradley – was also recording, performing and impacting a global audience. Could this extraordinary Irish talent be the Baez of the 21st Century?
Paul Cutler
Editor Crossroads – Americana Music Appreciation