Strange the way of life. The tail end of 2023 found me tripping across a sonic speed bump of sorts—Muireann Bradley’s astonishing debut, I Kept These Old Blues. It’s one of those albums that slows time when you play it, with the Irish folksinger—who was just 17—sharing aspects of her soul via renditions of timeworn blues standards. There was little publicity surrounding it that first month, however, and just a handful of reviews; mine, posted a week before Christmas, was one of the first. I assumed, as with much of the music I enjoy (and feature on this blog), that it would be ignored by most.
An appearance that New Year’s Eve on Jools’ Annual Hootenanny, a BBC special hosted by Jools Holland, upended everything. Within hours, my meager musings—which had been read by about a hundred folks until then—were being accessed by thousands of potential fans. She toured, toured some more, and is still on the road as I write, with her winsome vocals and deft caresses of her acoustic guitar winning over almost all who listen.
In short, she’s a throwback to an era when singers and songs mattered not because of their flash and brashness, but their talent and the talons (aka hooks) inherent in their chosen tunes. I’m thinking specifically of the mid- and late 1960s and early ‘70s, when cover songs were legion but rarely rote. Performers routinely shared aspects of themselves via the words and melodies of others—as Bradley does. Earlier this year, for instance, she shared her stripped-down renditions of two classics: “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” by Hank Williams and “Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright” by Bob Dylan. They each possess a coffeehouse vibe—and I don’t mean overly bright Starbucks, but the dimly lit coffeehouses of yore that routinely booked folksingers.
Her latest offering, a cover of Jackson Browne’s “These Days,” expands her stripped-down sonic palette ever-so-slightly with well-placed strings. On Facebook, she wrote, “I’ve loved this song for a long time and it was really fun to reimagine such a beautiful piece in my own way. That it’s a song many older music fans know like the back of our hands goes without saying; it’s a well-known chestnut to us. Yet, I’d wager, this will be among the first versions many younger folks will encounter—and a wonderful introduction it is.
The Old Grey Cat 
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