First Impressions: I Kept These Old Blues by Muireann Bradley

Recorded over three years, 17-year-old Irish folksinger-guitarist Muireann Bradley’s debut, I Kept These Old Blues, could well be heard as a risky undertaking: covers of 12 songs, dating back to the early 20th century, that have all been performed by a slew of legendary bluesmen and blueswomen through the years. I can almost hear a chorus of critics exclaiming, “What does a kid know about the blues?!” But the reward was worth that risk; to say that the record is stunning is an understatement. She may be young, but she has an old soul.

While listening to the album these past few days, I continuously expected to hear the pops, clicks and mini-skips associated with ancient LPs recovered from the bargain bins at a record store. You know the type: albums much-played by the original owner, but whose progeny sold them soon after he or she died. No matter the intent of care, dust gradually settled onto the vinyl, with occasional owner miscues— perhaps caused from queuing up a record while nursing a bourbon buzz—accounting for minuscule scratches here and there.

To give some background: Bradley came to the blues by way of her blues-obsessed dad. As she recounts on the Bandcamp page, “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.” He taught her to play guitar, too, but soon enough other pursuits, including full-contact sports, stole time away from music. Then came the pandemic, social distancing and, I imagine for her, boredom. She picked up her guitar again, wrote down a list of songs she wanted to learn, and began releasing YouTube videos. 

Here’s her spin on Blind Blake’s 1929 classic, “Police Dog Blues,” which she uploaded to YouTube at age 13. It and her other YouTube videos led her to being signed by the Tompkins Square label. (The song, via a new recording, is also on the album.)

In a sense, I Kept These Old Blues is the modern equivalent of Alan Lomax’s and Mack McCormick’s legendary field recordings. And just like the Lomax and McCormick collections, it’s a must listen. Bradley is a remarkable guitarist, for sure, while her vocals are at once gritty and pure, but there’s an intangible at play, too. She forgoes flash in favor of understatement, and it’s that finger-picking reserve that makes the performances ring true. She inhabits the songs, in other words, rather than just performing them.

To purchase, visit the album’s Bandcamp page.