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Muireann Bradley – I Kept These Old Blues (2023)
Review:
What were you doing at the age of thirteen? Chances are you weren’t being courted by one of America’s premier roots music labels. Muireann Bradley from Donegal, however, was gaining attention online for her precocious blues guitar work back in 2019. Tompkins Square took a chance, then allowed covid and Bradley’s general growing pains before releasing this debut to coincide with her seventeenth birthday. The cover was designed by Chicago artist Plastic Crimewave, who told FRUK: “Design-wise, we wanted something kind of stripped down and iconic, like an Anne Briggs album, or something put out by Topic, Transatlantic or The Village Thing labels.” Not many kids are conversant with the life of folk-blues singer Elizabeth Cotten (1893 –1987). Bradley was, though, thanks to her father, who also instructed her on guitar, which she made time to pursue fixatedly during lockdown. Bradley’s fingerstyle technique is one that takes practise, discipline and dedication. It’s a tiring method, especially when played up-tempo, taking its toll on muscles and membranes alike. She uses just her thumb, index and middle fingers for plucking. Thus, with two pinkies missing in action, this seems to allow greater control over her performance. Her choice of guitar is the Waterloo WL-14 for its woody prewar tone, presumably with a light string gauge for bendability. This album is the work of someone fiercely engaged in their craft. Using a capo, with chord patterns that often don’t leave the first position, Bradley interprets tunes by Blind Blake, Stefan Grossman, Mississippi John Hurt and Robert Wilkins, among others. She eschews the use of fingerpicks, as preferred by Rev. Gary Davis to save his digits from ruination. Bare skin offers a more soothing vibe, which works well under Bradley’s lulling voice. Indeed, her spotless vocals bridge that fine blues line between the secular and sacred, helping the murder ballad Stagolee to sound here like a divine oracle. Likewise, her take on the drug-pusher song Candyman has a smiling purity in contrast to Davis’s shagged out wheeze. She also pulls off the charming drawl thang without sounding comedic, so what might’ve been syrupy turns out sassy. Richland Woman Blues is done at quite a lick, with some hurried vocal phrasing, but Bradley’s voice is wild honey on lines like ‘With rosy red garters, pink hose on my feet’. Police Dog Blues is a rhythmic rag where Bradley offers deft harmonics, rapid chord patterns and bobbling bass runs. Any cynical voices about such a youthful artist will be silenced on hearing this cut. Bradley is no wilting flower, packaged for a safe market. Alone, she kicks up more dust than many a four-piece rock band. Vestapol played in drop D tuning is frisky and loose-limbed with boom-chick thumb work and efficient use of open strings. Notably, the blues influence means we get less of the American Primitive ‘droning cascade’ sound, although there are similarities. While Shake Sugaree could be a little more varied in delivery, especially for a song about sugaring the dancefloor to make some spark ‘n’ crackle, modern versions seem to lurk in the shadow of Elizabeth Cotten’s uproarious live take, though Mary Lou Lord pulled it off with vigour. That all said, Bradley does fearlessly tackle some totemic numbers, with the majority of these recordings being just first or second takes, as they would have been recorded in the 1920s and 30s, which is how she rolls. She skips gaily through a countrified Green Rocky Road and implores piningly on its singalong chorus. Frankie pits whirlwind flurries against an account of domestic violence, while teen tragedy is rendered tenderly on Delia. Police Sergeant Blues was not the only Robert Wilkins song where a luckless narrator spends a month in jail. Bradley does full justice to such injustice here, with some nifty variations on the versatile C major. Buck Dancer’s Choice, dating back to 1926, tumbles joyously over itself as Bradley stamps out staccato chords amid the jiggy flood. The closing cut, Freight Train, comes from an era when rhythm was part of the landscape, full of Elizabeth Cotten’s childhood memories. Bradley’s rendition takes a romantic and rattling ride back in time, rolling over the fenceless prairies of Ireland, looking westward across the Atlantic to glory. Muireann Bradley is a new Celtic soul sister, swinging the blues back from the margins. More vitally, she could inspire a fresh generation to investigate the genre. — by Gareth Thompson: folkradio.co.uk
Track List:
01 - Candyman
02 - Richland Woman Blues
03 - Police Dog Blues
04 - Shake Sugaree
05 - Vestapol
06 - Stagolee
07 - Green Rocky Road
08 - Frankie
09 - Police Sergeant Blues
10 - Buck Dancer's Choice
11 - Delia
12 - Freight Train
Media Report:
Genre: acoustic, blues, folk
Country: Ireland
Format: FLAC
Format/Info: Free Lossless Audio Codec
Bit rate mode: Variable
Channel(s): 2 channels
Sampling rate: 44.1 KHz
Bit depth: 16 bits
Compression mode: Lossless
Writing library: libFLAC 1.2.1 (UTC 2007-09-17)
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