Paul Joseph Brady (born 19 May 1947)[1] is an Irish singer-songwriter and musician from Strabane, Northern Ireland.[2] His work straddles folk and pop. He was interested in a wide variety of music from an early age.
Initially popular for playing Irish traditional music in a duo with Andy Irvine and later with Tommy Peoples and Matt Molloy, he later turned to a more rock-inspired electric style with poignant political lyrics. Some of his most popular songs are: "Crazy Dreams", "Nothing but the Same Old Story", "The Island", "Night Hunting Time", "Steel Claw" and "Paradise Is Here".[3]
He began learning piano around age six and by the age of eleven he had begun to play guitar, spending hours of his school holidays learning every song that the Shadows had recorded. He was also influenced by Chuck Berry.[citation needed]
In 1963, Brady began performing as a piano player in a hotel in Bundoran, Donegal. In October 1964, he attended University College Dublin and performed with a number of RnB groups, covering songs by the likes of Ray Charles and James Brown. The first of these was the Inmates (late 1964–about April 1965), which evolved into the Kult (about April–December 1965), featuring Brady, Jackie McAuley (ex-Them, and future Belfast Gypsies and Trader Horne), Brendan Bonass, and Dave Pennefather. Brady can be seen in the documentary film Charlie Is My Darling waiting outside Dublin's Adelphi Theatre for the Rolling Stones' concert of 3 September 1965. He next joined Rootzgroup (late 1965–May 1966) and Rockhouse (about May–December 1966).[6]
Musical career
1960s and 1970s
During his time at college in Dublin, the country saw a huge rise in interest in traditional Irish music. Brady joined the popular Irish band The Johnstons when Michael Johnston left in May 1967.[2] They moved to London, England, in 1969 and subsequently to New York City in 1972 to expand their audience. Despite some success, Brady returned to Ireland in 1974 to join the Irish group Planxty,[2] the band that would subsequently launch the solo careers of Andy Irvine, Liam O'Flynn, Dónal Lunny, and Christy Moore.
When Planxty disbanded in late 1975, Brady formed a duo with Irvine from 1976 to 1978, a partnership that produced the successful album, Andy Irvine/Paul Brady.[2] The next few years saw him establish his popularity and reputation as one of Ireland's best interpreters of traditional songs.[citation needed] His versions of ballads like "Arthur McBride" and "The Lakes of Pontchartrain" were considered definitive and are still popular at concerts today. In 1975 in New York he recorded two albums for Shanachie Records as guitar accompanist to resident Irish fiddlers Andy McGann and Paddy Reynolds. He also recorded a 1976 album, The High Part of the Road, for the same label with Irish fiddler Tommy Peoples.[7] And a 1977 Shanachie album with John Vesey.
Solo career
In 1978, Brady released his first solo album, Welcome Here Kind Stranger,[8] which won him critical acclaim and was awarded the Melody Maker Folk Album of the Year. However, it would prove to be Brady's last album covering traditional material. He decided to delve into pop and rock music, and released his first album of this genre in 1981, Hard Station.[2]
Brady released a number of successful solo albums throughout the 1980s: True for You (1983), Back to the Centre (1985), and Primitive Dance (1987). By the end of the decade, Brady was recognised and accepted as a respected performer and songwriter.[2] His songs were being covered by a number of other artists, including Santana and Dave Edmunds.
Dylan was sufficiently impressed by Brady's work to name-check him in the booklet of his 1985 box set, Biograph. The actual quote was "(...) people get too famous too fast these days and it destroys them. Some guys got it down-Leonard Cohen, Paul Brady, Lou Reed, secret heroes, John Prine, David Allen Coe, Tom Waits. I listen more to that kind of stuff than whatever is popular at the moment. They're not just witchdoctoring up the planet, they don't set up barriers (...)".[citation needed]
Since his Hard Station album (1981), Brady was on various major labels until he created his own label, PeeBee Music, in the late 1990s. He released three albums in the 1990s: Trick or Treat, Songs & Crazy Dreams (a remixed compilation of earlier songs) and Spirits Colliding, which were met with critical acclaim.[citation needed]Trick or Treat was on Fontana/Mercury Records and received a lot of promotion. As a result, some critics considered it his debut album and noted that the record benefited from the expertise of experienced studio musicians, as well as producer Gary Katz, who worked with the rock group Steely Dan. Rolling Stone, after praising Brady's earlier but less-known solo records, called Trick or Treat Brady's "most compelling collection."[citation needed]
Brady performing in 2006
Brady went on to record several other albums (15 in total since he went solo in 1978) and collaborated with a number of other established musicians including Bonnie Raitt and Richard Thompson. In 2006, he collaborated with Cara Dillon on the track "The Streets of Derry" from her album After the Morning. He has also worked with Fiachra Trench.
He performed Irish language songs as a character in the 2002 Matthew Barney film Cremaster 3. He also played tin whistle on the single "One" by Greg Pearle in 2008, from the album Beautiful You, a collaboration between Greg Pearle and John Illsley; this song featured in the 2008 film Anton, directed by Graham Cantwell.
Brady's fifteenth studio album, Hooba Dooba, was released in March 2010.[10]
As of 2017, a friendship was struck with Theo Katzman (vulfpeck) and Brady toured Ireland in 2019 as half of this duo with Joe Dart, also of vulfpeck, Louis Cato and Lee Pardini.[citation needed]
Brady had continued to tour, record and collaborate with other artists.[citation needed] In 2019, Jimmy Buffett began performing a cover of Brady's hit, "The World is What you Make It". In September 2019, Brady joined Jimmy Buffett on his tour stops in both Dublin and London.[citation needed]
He released the album "Unfinished Business" on his own label PeeBee Music, licensed to Proper Music UK, in 2017.[citation needed]
While Brady and Andy Irvine's planned tour of their 1976 album Andy Irvine, Paul Brady was impacted by the Covid pandemic, they finished the tour in 2022.[citation needed] Musicians to join them on the tour included fiddle player Kevin Burke and multi-instrumentalist Dónal Lunny, both of whom had played on the original album.[11]
Paul Brady Live at Rockpalast 1983 (Repertoire Records 2016)
Related Research Articles
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Welcome Here Kind Stranger is a 1978 album by Paul Brady. After leaving The Johnstons, Brady toured with Planxty until they disbanded in 1975, and recorded a duo album with Andy Irvine in 1976.
Trick or Treat is a 1991 album by Irish singer/songwriter Paul Brady, his sixth solo album, and his first for a major label. Mercury Records, teamed him with producer Gary Katz, who recruited from his contacts, including Toto members Jeff Porcaro - in one of his last projects before his death - and David Paich. The title track is a duet with Bonnie Raitt. The album includes the successful song "Nobody Knows", later the title of an anthology. The album entered the Irish charts at number two on 24 March 1991 and peaked at number one the following week.
Ordinary Man is the tenth studio album by Irish folk artist, Christy Moore. It features songs like "Ordinary Man", "St. Brendan's Voyage" and "Another Song is Born". The album featured songs by Peter Hames, Johnny Mulhearn, Hugh McDonald, Colm Gallagher and Floyd Red Crow Westerman; as well as some backing vocals by Enya on "Quiet Desperation", "Sweet Music Roll On" and "The Diamondtina [sic] Drover" and some fine uilleann pipes work by Liam O'Flynn. The original release of the album featured the song "They Never Came Home" which Moore wrote for the victims and families of the Stardust fire. The song was quickly removed from the album because the lyrics were found to be libelous.
After The Break is the fourth studio album by the Irish folk music band Planxty, recorded at Windmill Lane Studios from 18 to 30 June 1979 and released the same year. It was the band's first of two releases on Tara Records.
The Woman I Loved So Well is the fifth studio album by Planxty. Like their previous album, After The Break, the album was recorded at Windmill Lane Studios and released by Tara Records. Co-produced by band member Dónal Lunny and engineer Brian Masterson, the album was recorded in April and May of 1980 and released on LP in July of that year. It remains in print on CD and in digital form from Tara to date.
Rainy Sundays... Windy Dreams is Andy Irvine's first solo album, produced by Dónal Lunny and recorded at Dublin's Windmill Lane Studios in late 1979. It was released in January 1980 by Tara Records.
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Andy Irvine & Dónal Lunny's Mozaik [a.k.a.Mozaik] is a multicultural folk band consisting of Andy Irvine, Dónal Lunny, Bruce Molsky, Nikola Parov and Rens van der Zalm. Created in 2002, the band have toured Australia, Europe, USA and Japan, and recorded four albums.
Andy Irvine/70th Birthday Concert at Vicar St 2012 is a live recording of a pair of concerts held at Dublin's Vicar Street venue, on 16 and 17 June 2012, to celebrate Andy Irvine's 70th birthday.
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Mick Hanly is an Irish singer and composer from Limerick. In the 1970s, he formed several folk music duos, first with Mícheál Ó Domhnaill, then with Andy Irvine and, more recently, with Dónal Lunny. From 1982 until 1985, he was a member of Moving Hearts. Hanly is known for composing "Past the Point of Rescue", which was first covered by Mary Black (1988) and also by American artist Hal Ketchum (1991).
References
↑ Psychology Press. 2002 "Brady, Paul" in International who's who in popular music. p. 58
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