By Maxim Kelly
Teenage folk phenomenon Muireann Bradley will play the Róisín Dubh this Saturday, December 14, at 7pm, with support from Julia-Maria.
Muireann Bradley is a 17-year-old folk and blues guitar player and singer from Ballybofey, Donegal. She specialises in acoustic fingerpicking country, piedmont, and ragtime blues styles from the 1920s, 30s and 40s, as well as later folk, country and Americana.
Her influences include Blind Blake, Rev Gary Davis, Memphis Minnie, Elizabeth Cotten, Mississippi John Hurt, Stefan Grossman, Ari Eisinger, John Fahey and Roy Bookbinder.
Her father taught her guitar as a 9-year-old. In 2020 she received an offer from Josh Rosenthal of Tompkins Square Records to record an album after he saw her on Youtube. The result, I kept these old Blues, was released to rave reviews in December 2023.
Before late 2023, Badley had played a live session on Highland Radio which went viral, and received a standing ovation when she performed on Jools Holland’s annual New Year’s Eve Hootenanny.
This year, Bradley did live sessions for Cerys Matthews’ BBC Radio 2 Blues Show, the Stephen McCauley show on BBC Radio Ulster and Ray Cuddihy’s Mise Sessions on RTE Radio 1. She also performed live on The Late Late Show and filmed sessions for Other Voices Anam in Ormond Castle and Acoustic Guitar Magazine.
In Britain, I Kept These Old Blues reached Number 1 on the Amazon download chart, and got into the top 10 on the Itunes. It broke into the Amazon New Folk Music Chart in the US. This is considered remarkable for a debut album in a genre now reckoned uncommercial.
Tickets €29 from www.roisindubh.net
