Muireann Bradley – Young Girl Blues
By Matteo Bossi
It’s certainly unlikely for a teenager in this time and age to listen to old country blues records that date back to nearly a century ago. Let alone taking it a step further and learning to play and sing some of these songs. And it’s not science fiction, this teenager is no longer a hypothetical, her name is Muireann Bradley from Ballybofey a small town of County Donegal, in the north-western part of Ireland. Curiously not that far from Ballyshannon, the birthplace of another iconic irish artist, the late Rory Gallagher. Still what has happened with her music is maybe even more unlikely. What started out as a fun little thing, posting some of her home performances on youtube turned into a record deal for her first album, “I Kept These Old Blues”.
Now the album, a straight, bright country blues record, is being re-released by Decca/Universal with one additional track, a version of “When The Levee Breaks”, by the late great Memphis Minnie. “It’s definitely unexpected and very cool to be able to be part of a label like Decca, it’s exciting and there will be more stuff in the future.”, say Bradley about this when we had a chance to talk to her via Zoom. “I started playing when I was about nine, I played for a few years then I really got into sports…I was into ju-jitsu and boxing as well, I competed all the time in both sports. Then when lockdown hit I could not go to hit, I could not train at all and of course I could not compete. So I decided to go back to playing the guitar. That’s when I got back into old country blues of the twenties and thirties. We started putting on each video when I got a song done and good enough. That’s how things took off then.”
How did you learn to play guitar?
My dad, he’s my teacher and he taught me how to play. During lockdown I went to him and I had a list of songs that I really wanted to learn. I think the ones that I really wanted to learn first were “Police Dog Blues” by Blind Blake and “Candy Man” by Reverend Gary Davis. He taught me how to play them and then we put them on Youtube. Everything took off really quickly from then. The video caught attention and I did not think it was going to happen. I thought it was going to get a few hundred views at the most but it ended getting over eighty thousand views. Another record label Tompkins Square saw the videos and offered me a record deal. It took us a while to agree to it, because I was only thirteen at the time…I was just very young, and my mom and dad didn’t want to agree on anything. But we got a very good deal and we agreed to it. It took nearly two years to do the record, just because it was all during lockdown so I could not go anywhere to record, then I had covid myself. It was recorded in my hometown, Ballybofey, in a kind of home studio and it was all recorded live, most of them in one or two takes, no tracks or anything like that. Guitar and vocals were recorded together, like when you perform. I had a longer list and then I picked the ones I like the most, that was pretty much it.
So this music has always been around.
Yes, my dad had always been into this old country blues in general, it’s the music I remember hearing growing up…when I started playing the singing came very naturally I suppose. I never really thought about it, I didn’t try to put on an accent or anything like that…obviously my dad helped me a little bit but singing and playing guitar at the same time came very easily to me.
You chose songs from great blues women like Memphis Minnie and Elizabeth Cottoen.
Memphis Minnie she’s one of my favorite guitarist, she’s just amazing and I love to play “Drunken Barrelhouse Blues”, “When The Levee Breaks”! And Elizabeth Cotten she’s got an amazing life story, I think she didn’t perform at all until she was rediscovered by the Seeger family and then she played to her nineties. Yes the title of the album comes from a line in her song…she’s pretty inspiring. My dad told me the stories about the artists when I took more of an interest in playing. Like Mississippi John Hurt or Reverend Gary Davis, the stories behind the songs and some of the stories that happened back in the early twenties and thirties…
Muireann Bradley
Do any of your friends listen to this music?
Oh not really, and in Ireland there’s not much of a culture for blues, I don’t really talk about this music with my friends, they’re not interested so there’s not any point…they say oh that’s Muireann’s music, that’s what she listens to. When I played for my friends they didn’t know what to expect but I think people do enjoy to listen to this music even if they’ve never heard it before, it stays in their head. I love to open it up for people of my own age, I think it’s amazing music that should not be forgotten.
Did you look for inspiration even in more contemporary players like Stefan Grossman, Ari Eisinger or Eric Bibb?
Yes, I definitely do. People like Stefan Grossman and Ari Eisinger are a big influence on me as well, on my playing…Roy Book Binder and Eric Bibb as well. I actually met Eric last week, I was supporting him in Dublin, here in Ireland, at the TradFest. I got to meet him again, he’s a really nice guy and he’s an amazing musician, I got to see his concert as well. People like Ari Eisinger are a big influence. When The Levee Breaks I basically learned that arrangement from him! He plays a great version of that song.
I saw a video where you play a Bob Dylan song, “Don’t Think Twice It’s Alright”.
I love that song as well. I think I love any kind of song that have a cool guitar part to them and I love the guitar part in that song. It’s a great tune.
The guitar was not your first instrument.
Yes, my mom and dad made play piano when I was quite young, I think I was just five…and I didn’t like it. I was being taught by my aunt as well so maybe it had something to do with that! I think it was all just learning to read music and stuff but I didn’t enjoy it, so I went for about a year and then I quit because I didn’t like it. I don’t actually play piano but I love listening to piano blues as well, people like Skip James. And I really love that. My brother plays piano, he doesn’t perform or anything but he plays it in his spare time for fun.
Did you feel at ease performing live in front of an audience?
This was more of a little project for me, I didn’t expect anyone to care about it…but when it came out it got so much attention and I kind of had to learn how to perform. Because after I performed at Jools Holland’s Hotenanny there were so many offers coming in for me to play in big venues and stuff like that. I had not perform at all before. I did a few shows, support gigs and then I did two busking festivals and two or three small gigs, no big crowd or anything. I had to learn all the way. Then last year it was a busy year, I played a lot of festival during the summer. I went to America in september, I was in San Diego and then in Hawaii. I played one gig in San Diego and two at the Hawaii and I was also part of a documentary about hawaian slack key guitar and the influence it had on blues. Back in the Twenties and Thirties it was very popular music.
Did you write some songs of your own too?
Yes, for the next album, whenever it comes out, it’s not in the process of being made or anything, I’m writing at the minute, there’s a few tunes that I’m kind of halfway through. I still listen to a lot of country blues, it’s my main thing, people like Mississippi John Hurt, Blind Blake and Reverend Gary Davis, who plays a lot of gospel tunes that I love. He was an amazing guitarist as well.
Have you tried a tweve string guitar? Some of those artists used to play one.
Yes, but I’ve never owned a twelve strings guitar, I’ve just played them a few times in guitar shops. I know Rev. Gary Davis played them quite a lot. I’d love to have one and practice.
You play songs from the repertoire of the late John Fahey too.
Oh yes, he was a great guitarist, I play Sligo River Blues and even Buckdancer’s Choice as well, which is a song written by a guy named Sam McGee but Fahey does a great cover of that and my version has been influenced by his cover. I’m definitely influenced by John Fahey.
Are you familiar with younger artists who play in that syle like Jerron Paxton.
Oh yes, he’s great, I saw him on Jools Holland’s Late Show, I think he does a version of Candy Man himself…he’s such a good guitarist and performer as well.
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