DONEGAL musician Muireann Bradley is attracting attention Stateside after her amazing performance on Jools Holland’s Hootenanny and has been branded ‘Ireland’s roots and blues prodigy’ by Acoustic Guitar Magazine.
The US magazine has featured a performance with the Ballybofey singer on their ‘Acoustic Guitar Sessions’, a collection of videos showcasing the best acoustic guitarists around the world.
“Muireann Bradley, a young musician based in rural Ireland, is just one of countless acoustic guitarists around the world to enter the woodshed with grit and determination during the lockdown phase of the Covid pandemic,” the article reads.
“But what sets her apart is that she was only 13 years old at the time and emerged with a repertoire of vintage blues and folk songs that she sings and plays with great authenticity and conviction, not to mention a prodigious fingerstyle technique.
“Now 17, Bradley first became inspired to pick up the guitar by listening to Robert Johnson, Blind Blake, Reverend Gary Davis, and other blues pioneers with her musician father, in addition to hearing him picking around the house. Her earliest videos caught the attention of Josh Rosenthal of Tompkins Square Records, who recently released her debut album, I Kept These Old Blues. As the title suggests, it’s a collection of the standards that resonate most with her.”
An exclusive video for the ‘Acoustic Guitar Sessions’ was filmed at St Anne’s Church of Ireland churchyard in Ballyshannon.
Bradley performs three classic songs: Reverend Gary Davis’ version of “Candyman,” Blind Blake’s “Police Dog Blues,” and Memphis Minnie’s “When the Levee Breaks.”
She also provides some insights into their history.
To achieve a period-correct sound, she plays her Gibson LG-2 reissue; a Waterloo WL-S Deluxe, with its ladder bracing; and her personal favourite, an X-braced Waterloo WL-14X, whose V-shaped neck she finds feels the most like home.
Muireann announced last week that she will play Whelan’s Bar in Dublin on April 13 and with all the attention the young star has been getting it is no surprise that the gig was very quick to sell out.
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