| Muireann Bradley is an Irish musician who plays country blues. She appeared on Jools' Annual Hootenanny on 31 December 2023. Following her appearance on the show, her album I Kept These Old Blues entered the top ten of the UK Albums Download Chart. This is my first album. 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. Muireann Bradley Meer... |
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De grote sensatie van Jools Hollands fameuze BBC-oud&nieuwshow Annual Hootenanny was de zeventienjarige Muireann Bradley uit Ballyfofey, Ierland. Te midden van gevierde zwaargewichten als Rod Stewart, Joss Stone, P.P. Arnold, Sugababes en Pogues-oprichter Spider Stacey was zij degene die de uitbundigste staande ovatie van het publiek in de wacht wist te slepen, voor haar virtuoze uitvoering van het honderd jaar oude liedje Candy Man. En dat helemaal in haar eentje, met haar gitaar, op dat huiveringwekkende podium. Muireann legt zich toe op de traditionele countryblues- en folkliedjes uit de eerste helft van de vorige eeuw. Van sommige zijn de makers bekend, zoals Mississippi John Hurt, Robert Wilkins en Elizabeth Cotten. Van andere songs wortelt de herkomst in een duister verleden. In december verscheen haar debuutalbum I Kept These Old Blues (Tompkins Square). Het klinkt precies als haar optreden bij Jools Holland. Ook nu alleen het meisje en haar gitaar, alles opgenomen in een of twee takes. Zelfs de Volkskrant is enthousiast op de recensiepagina, alleen is er uiteraard wel wat te zeuren: Bradley moet eigenlijk zelf haar liedjes gaan schrijven. Op die manier was Doc Watson ook nooit verder gekomen dan drie sterren. RECENSIE — René Leverink. |