Muireann Bradley Releases Debut Album

Muireann Bradley, a 17 year old finger picking guitar player and singer from County Donegal released her debut album in December 2023.  She performs Country Blues and Ragtime Blues from the 1920s and 30s, also Folk, Roots and Americana. 

She grew up with her father listening to these old records and playing and singing the music himself. When she was nine years old she asked him to teach her to play and so her love of guitar began. During the covid lockdowns she decided to start posting videos on YouTube, the first of which was her rendition of Blind Blake's "Police Dog Blues". It received a lot of attention, it’s now had 80,000 views. 

She was soon contacted by Josh Rosenthal of Tompkins Square Records who suggested she record an album, entitled entitled "I Kept These Old Blues.”

As Muireann wrote on her website, “Most of these tunes were originally recorded by the great blues men and women who were making records from the 1920s and 1930s right up in some cases to the early 1970s. I have also found inspiration for the renditions recorded here in the playing of some of the musicians who began recording this music in the 1960s and later, and who in some cases learned at the feet of the greats. Many of these guitarists played pivotal roles in the 1960s blues revival and subsequent “rediscovery” of many of the greats of country blues.

“I grew up steeped in these old blues in the hills overlooking the valley of the River Finn just outside the town of Ballybofey in County Donegal. My father would play this music constantly at home and wherever we went in the car and talk about it endlessly whether anyone was listening or not, telling stories about the lives of these musicians as if they were legend, mythology or the evening news.
“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. Nothing has been added or taken away, no overdubs or modern recording tricks 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 1920s and 1930s. I hope you enjoy the record.”

For more information, visit www.muireannbradley.com.