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 aged 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 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 planned to release 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 John is a musician and her mother Breda is an English teacher. Her father began teaching her to play the guitar at the age of nine and introduced her to authentic blues and ragtime music. [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]
In 2020, Josh Rosenthal of Tompkins Square Records in San Francisco offered to produce an album of her material after seeing her on Youtube. The album was made over the next three years as simple one-take recordings of voice and acoustic guitar, through one mic with no overdubs, [14] in a small studio in Ballybofey by local producer Terry McGinty. [15] It was released in December 2023 titled "I Kept These Old Blues". [16] A BBC producer heard the album, was impressed, and invited Bradley to perform on BBC television. [17] 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'. [18] [19] [20] Her first gig had been a few months before at the Ballyshannon Folk and Traditional Music Festival in Donegal. [21]
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. [22] Future performances were booked in America, Australia and the Caribbean, including an appearance on Joe Bonamassa's 'Keeping the Blues Alive' show. [23] 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. [24] 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. [25] 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. [26]
In December 2024 Bradley signed to Decca Records. Decca proposed to remaster "I Kept These Old Blues" and re-release it on vinyl on 28 February 2025 with an extra track, Memphis Minnie and Kansas Joe McCoy's "When the Levee Breaks". [27] 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". [28] 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. [29]