“A softly assured trailblazer who enraptures all who come across her work”
Clash Magazine

“Seldom have these familiar pieces been executed with the verve and grace, as well as the skill,
of this young Irishwoman”
★★★★ MOJO

“To describe her as a guitarist is like describing Picasso as someone who dabbled in a bit of drawing”
Blues In Britain

“Much like how Laufey has brought Jazz standards to Gen Z, we can see Muireann being a torchbearer for Blues and bringing a new generation to the genre”
Record of the Day

“Muireann Bradley is not just a young talent; she is a torchbearer for the rich tradition of country blues”
Blues Matters Magazine

Muireann Bradley is a once-in-a-generation talent. Aged just 17, this prodigious musician is rapidly garnering a devout fanbase – as well as the admiration of veteran artists – thanks to her unique style, which blends traditional guitar playing with personal and mature interpretations of classic blues songs. From playing music alone in her childhood bedroom, she has since become a choice favourite on international TV spots including Jools Holland and The Late Late Show, not to mention signing with Decca Records, itself a mark of industry recognition for her rare and authentic gift.
Raised just outside the small town of Ballybofey in County Donegal, Ireland, Bradley inherited a passion for music from her father, a keen guitar player and blues fan himself. Growing up in a home filled with guitars, she began to learn to play when she was just nine years old, only taking a brief break to win a series of national titles in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and regional titles in amateur boxing reaching two national finals.
By this point, she’d badgered her parents into getting her a guitar of her own for her birthday; she developed her own playing style that lends the instrument a personality – a depth of character all of its own.
Bradley’s debut album, I Kept These Old Blues, is an astonishing first glimpse at the breadth of her talent – both as a guitar virtuoso and a singer. The first pressing has sold out everywhere and is already regarded as a collectible among in-the-know music fans – truly remarkable given Bradley was just 15 years old when she recorded it. Now remixed and mastered, I Kept These Old Blues demonstrates the kind of assuredness and skill to be expected of a musician five times her age, on blues standards such as Blind Blake’s “Police Dog Blues” and Rev Gary Davis’s “Candyman”.
She played the latter during a solo appearance on Jools Holland’s Hootenanny, where she rubbed shoulders with stars including Sir Rod Stewart, Sugababes, Joss Stone and Irish rock band The Mary Wallopers. Lit by a simple spotlight, Bradley stole the show and received a standing ovation for what audience members dubbed an “unforgettable” performance. “I was quite nervous, but everyone was so nice,” she says, singling out British-Jamaican singer and Hootenanny favourite Ruby Turner, whom she grew up watching on her dad’s taped episodes. “We got to hang out in hair and makeup for a while” — she was so nice to me and made me feel really at home.”
She views herself first and foremost as a guitarist, having started out covering instrumental blues tunes before she began to sing along: “She has this really uncanny gift from a young age, where she would be able to play very difficult guitar parts and sing along with very little effort at all – something a lot of people struggle with,” her dad, John, explains. But she’s an outstanding storyteller, too, on songs such as “Staggerlee” – inspired by the murder of Billy Lyons by “Stag” Lee Shelton in St Louis, Missouri, at Christmas in 1895. “It’s very dramatic, opening on Christmas night,” Bradley says. “There are lots of different versions of the same tale by all these great blues players, but I like Mississippi John Hurt’s the best – I based my arrangement on that one.”
Clearly a natural at charming a TV audience, as her Hootenanny appearance proved, Bradley also wowed her fellow guests on The Late Late Show, Oscar and Golden Globe-nominated actors Paul Mescal and Andrew Scott, with a performance of her single “When the Levee Breaks”. Written and first recorded by Memphis Minnie and Kansas Joe McCoy in 1929, it narrates the upheaval wrought by the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927, and was notably covered by Led Zeppelin for their fourth album, known as Led Zeppelin IV.
Bradley is as fascinated by the histories behind the songs as she is by the instrumentation or the lyrics: “My dad would tell me stories when I was younger about all the great blues musicians, the stories about where they came from and the origins of the songs,” she recalls. So where other artists might veer into pastiche, her work maintains an authenticity thanks to her innate understanding and appreciation of her craft, and the centuries of tradition behind it.
Take “Richland Woman Blues”, one of her favourite Mississippi John Hurt songs, on which the guitar line hurries merrily along like a babbling brook as she sings from the perspective of the Richland woman: “Gimme red lipstick and a bright poppy rouge / A shingle bob haircut and a shot of good booze”. She was drawn to the evocative writing, which sets the scene for a woman looking to have some fun while her husband is away. “It was clearly written in the Twenties, with the references to the clothes, style and cars,” she says. “It really puts you in the scene, and the tune is great too.”
Bradley weaves gorgeous harmonies on Blind Blake’s “Police Dog Blues”, noodling across arpeggiating scales with an easy kind of grace. She’d grown up hearing her dad play it, and was determined to master her own interpretation. “Blind Blake was probably one of the most amazing finger-picking guitar players who ever lived,” she says. “A lot of his work was based on ragtime piano, and he could make the guitar sound like another instrument, which was amazing.”
“Shake Sugaree”, written and recorded by influential American folk and blues musician Elizabeth Cotten around 1965, illustrates Bradley’s reverence for the great female artists who came before her, from Cotten to New Orleans legend Memphis Minnie. She also covers Cotten’s song “Freight Train”, written when she was around 13 years old. “I just love how she was completely self-taught, and taught herself to play a completely different way to how anyone else had ever played,” Bradley says.
Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of Bradley’s career is how it is still at its earliest stage. Her curiosity and keenness to learn is evident, as she discusses the complex playing style of country-blues virtuoso Robert Wilkins on “Police Sergeant Blues”, and how she had to dedicate herself to learn his technique speaks to her staggering potential. “It’s something to do with the timing, which is very unusual,” she says of Wilkins’ picking style. “He plays notes that you wouldn’t think would go together, but if you’re playing at the right tempo, it really works!”
Bradley’s respect for authenticity reached the ears of Hawaiian documentary film maker Susan Kucera and Hollywood star and fellow blues enthusiast Jeff Bridges, who is executive-producing Kucera’s documentary about the origins and influence of Hawaiian slack-key guitar playing on American blues and country music. Muireann was flown out as an authoritative voice and skilled musician in her own right, to perform and discuss her playing on camera with Hawaiian musician John Cruz. Muireann has elements of slack key in her playing in open tunings mixed in with traditional country blues. Being Irish and playing country blues helped bring the narrative on the origins and influence of slack key full circle as Irish whalers brought Irish traditional music and song to Hawaii in the 1800s which influenced how Hawaiian music & song would develop.
It’s a perfect case of how music has the ability to transcend all barriers of time and place. Bradley is a torch-bearer, picking up the baton from generations who came before her – telling stories that were first told over a hundred years ago, but continue to inspire us to this day.