Muireann Bradley (born 18 December 2006) is an Irish musician from County Donegal who plays and sings country blues [1] [2] [3] and ragtime guitar from the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s in the fingerpicking style of the original artists. [4] She began learning guitar at the age of nine. [5] On 31 December 2023, aged 17, she appeared on BBC tv's Jools' Annual Hootenanny show and was given a standing ovation for her performance of Rev Gary Davis's 1961 song 'Candyman'. [6] [7] [8] Following this television appearance, her debut album I Kept These Old Blues entered the top ten of the UK Albums Download Chart. [9] [10] She signed to Decca Records in December 2024. Decca released a remastered version of I Kept These Old Blues on vinyl in February 2025. [11]
Bradley was born in Ballybofey, County Donegal, in December 2006. Her father is a musician and her mother is an English teacher. Her father introduced her to authentic blues and ragtime music and taught her to play the guitar. [12] Her early influences included Blind Blake, Rev Gary Davis, Memphis Minnie, Elizabeth Cotten, Mississippi John Hurt, Stefan Grossman, Robert Johnson and John Fahey. [13] She also found inspiration in the work of musicians who were recording this music in the 1960s. [14]
Bradley said she grew up "steeped in these old blues". Her father played the music constantly at home and in the car and "talked about it endlessly", telling stories of the lives of the musicians as if they were mythology. In an interview Bradley recalled, "My father could play all this stuff on guitar, and I remember watching him when I was very young and thinking, 'I want to be able to do that'." [15] At the age of nine she was given a small travel guitar with extra-light strings and began learning, but at first school sports activities competed for practice time. The Covid lockdowns that began in March 2020 allowed her to focus on the guitar, and from that point she learned very quickly. [16] She wrote a list of songs that she wanted to be able to play, and when she was 13 a video of her performing the first song on the list, Blind Blake's 'Police Dog Blues', was posted on YouTube. [17] She told Guitar World in October 2024, "It's important to keep the songs going. These musicians are so amazing, we should keep their memory alive." [18]
In 2020, Josh Rosenthal of Tompkins Square Records in San Francisco saw Bradley on YouTube and offered to produce an album of her music. The album was made over the next three years as simple, mostly one-take recordings of voice and acoustic guitar through one mic with no overdubs, [19] in a small studio in Ballybofey by local producer Terry McGinty. [20] It was released in December 2023 titled "I Kept These Old Blues". [21] A BBC producer heard the album, was impressed, and invited Bradley to perform on BBC television. [22] On 31 December 2023, aged 17, Bradley appeared on BBC TV's Jools Holland's Annual Hootenanny in only her fifth gig and was given a standing ovation for her performance of the 1961 Rev Gary Davis song 'Candyman'. [23] [24] [25] [26] Her first gig had been a few months before at the Ballyshannon Folk and Traditional Music Festival in Donegal. [27] She said in an interview before the show that "Candyman" was a song she had known and loved for as long as she could remember. [28]
"I Kept These Old Blues" contained 12 tracks of simple vocals and fingerpicked acoustic guitar versions of the original songs, recorded usually in one take each, with no overdubs or effects. [29] Acoustic Guitar magazine said the songs were performed with "great authenticity and conviction and a prodigious fingerstyle technique". [30] Americana UK said Bradley had a "singular talent" and her playing had "a virtuoso confidence . . . bolstered by undeniable skill and a profound affection for the music". [31] Stefan Grossman, quoted in The Journal of Music, described Bradley as "a wonderful player". [32]
The tracks on "I Kept These Old Blues" were "Candyman", "Richland Woman Blues", Police Dog Blues", Shake Sugaree", "Vestapol", "Stagolee", "Green Rocky Road", "Frankie", "Police Sergeant Blues", "Buck Dancer's Choice", "Delia" and "Freight Train". An extra track, "When the Levee Breaks", was added by Decca when they re-released the album in February 2025. [33]
In the summer of 2024, Bradley played shows and festivals around Ireland and Britain and some in Germany and the Netherlands. Her audiences included an enthusiastic 6,000-strong crowd at the 'All Together Now' festival in County Waterford. [34] Future performances were booked in America, Australia and the Caribbean, including an appearance on Joe Bonamassa's 'Keeping the Blues Alive' show. [35] Bradley played live sessions on Cerys Matthews' BBC Radio 2 Blues Show, the Stephen McCauley show on BBC Radio Ulster and Ray Cuddihy's sessions on RTE Radio 1. [36] Her debut album reached No.1 on the Amazon UK download chart, was in the top 10 on the UK ITunes chart and entered the Amazon 'New Folk Music' chart in the US. [37] Copies of the album sold out and went to second and third pressings. By December 2024 her performances online had been viewed over two million times and UK gigs had sold out. [38] She performed in St Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin on 25 January 2025 as part of TradFest, the city's annual celebration of Irish music and culture, [39] and live on RTE's Late Late Show on 28 February 2025, the day "I Kept These Old Blues" was re-released.
In December 2024 it was announced that Bradley had signed to Decca Records. Decca remastered "I Kept These Old Blues" and re-released the album on vinyl in February 2025 with an extra track, Memphis Minnie and Kansas Joe McCoy's "When the Levee Breaks". [40] [41] [42] Bradley said that being associated with a historic label that had produced legends such as Billie Holliday, Nina Simone and Ella Fitzgerald "was a dream come true". [43]
Bradley began learning on a small, short-scale travel guitar with extra-light strings. In 2024 she was playing a Gibson LG-2 reissue for a period-correct sound, a Waterloo WL-S Deluxe with ladder bracing, her father's X-braced Waterloo WL-14 with a chunky V-profile neck, [44] [45] and a new short scale, small bodied Custom McNally Guitars 'S' model, specially made for her by Armagh-based luthier Ciaran McNally. [46]