Muireann Bradley: When the Levee Breaks & Interview | The Late Late Show

A Few Late Chrysanthemums.

Robert Plant.

Brrr, another cold morning, but hey, its Saturday. I have always loved Saturdays, especially following the football on Saturday afternoons. I see some games have been postponed due to frozen pitches. I hope Peterborough v Shrewsbury isn’t postponed because Posh have a chance of going top of the table today if Portsmouth slip up. There is a pitch inspection at 11.00, so we shall see. I had quite a good day yesterday. I was up early because tickets for Robert Plant & Saving Grace went on sale at 10.00. I managed to get a ticket before they all sold out. The concert is March 13 at the Bristol Beacon, so look out for my future review of that. 

After that, because it was a sunny morning, I decided to catch the bus over to Warminster to visit Sian. I stopped off at Morrison’s and got her some provisions because she doesn’t like going out in the cold. When I got to Warminster, I usually catch another bus to her house, but this time I decided to walk because I’m trying to have some exercise every day. I enjoyed the walk and had a nice couple of hours at Sian’s before heading back to town. It was 35 minutes before my bus back to Westbury, so I had a quick scoot around the charity shops. In the Blue-Cross shop I found a first edition 1954 book by John Betjeman called A Few Late Chrysanthemums. It didn’t have a dustjacket, but still might be worth a few quid. I like John Betjeman, his poems are not too highbrow for the likes of me. You can actually understand what he is saying, unlike some poets I could mention. His poems have humour and pathos in equal measure and are very English. I don’t know if he is popular abroad, he might be a bit too parochial. He was inspired by things like churches, railway stations and small towns, and hated the brutalism of modern architecture. He even wrote a poem about a small railway station just outside Westbury called Dilton Marsh Halt. A few nights ago I watched an old edition of the Michael Parkinson Show from the 1970s where he was talking to Maggie Smith and Kenneth Williams. He was a great man, and very humorous. I remember once in an interview towards the end of his life he was asked if he had any regrets. He thought for a moment, and then said, “Yes, I wish I’d had more sex”. 

I started reading the book at the bus stop and continued all the way back to Westbury. I also found another book yesterday called Firmin by John Savage. I started reading that last evening. Its about a rat who lives in the cellar of a bookshop. He starts eating the books which gives him the ability to read. I’ll tell you more about that in due course if I get to the end. I can’t think of anything else to say now. See you later.

Beeswing by Richard Thompson: (Photos of Anne Briggs who inspired the song)

Review: I Kept These Old Blues by Muireann Bradley.

County Donegal in the north-west corner of Ireland is famed for its beautiful scenery, but also for its fine musical tradition. Famous acts from Donegal include Altan, Clannad, Enya, Moya Brennan, and one of the greatest blues guitarists of all time Rory Gallagher. Recently another blues guitar player and singer has joined that illustrious list which is Muireann Bradley who hails from the small town of Ballybofey. It was Muireann’s perfect performance of Candyman by Reverend Gary Davis on Jools Holland’s New Year’s Eve Hootenanny which made her an overnight sensation, and made me order her debut album which arrived here last Friday. I see that her performance on Jool’s show has already had 450,000 views on YouTube and the album is number 1 on the Irish charts. Muireann’s dad is a big blues fan, and a guitar player, so it is no wonder that she grew up steeped in the blues. Her dad gave Muireann her first guitar at age 9. Music wasn’t Muireann’s only interest growing up. She was also a very keen and promising boxer. It was only at the start of lockdown when boxing training was out of the question that she began seriously learning how to play her favourite songs. She was only 13 at the time and I think she is only 17 now, so her progress has been phenomenal in such a short time. She must be gifted with a huge natural aptitude for playing the acoustic guitar. 

The first song she learned was Police dog Blues by Blind Blake. I think if Muireann ever meets Ralph McTell they would get on like a house on fire because whenever I have seen Ralph perform, he always plays a song or two by Blind Blake and Gary Davis. Anyway, Muireann was filmed singing Police Dog Blues. The video was put on YouTube which was spotted by Josh Rosenthal of Tomkins Square records which led to her debut album being recorded. I have listened to the album several times since Friday, and I love it. I’ve already played it twice today while writing this! It is a very sparse recording, just Muireann singing while simultaneously playing her guitar. I think this adds to the album’s authenticity because it is exactly how these old Blues singers would have recorded their songs nearly 100 years ago.

 The album opens with Candyman which is followed by Richland Woman Blues by Mississippi John Hurt. Muireann also plays Stagolee and Frankie by Mississippi John Hurt on later tracks, so she is obviously a big fan of Mississippi John. He was born in 1893 and worked in obscurity as a sharecropper farmer until being discovered in 1963. He only had three years of relative fame before he died in 1966. After the aforementioned Police Dog Blues we are treated to Shake Sugaree made famous by the great Elizabeth Cotten who I have written about previously on this blog. As you know Elizabeth had her own unique upside down left-handed ‘Cottenpicking’ style. Muireann’s version has an arrangement by Stefan Grossman. (Listen below) Stefan also contributes the arrangements of the instrumental Vestapol and an emotional version of Delia to the album, and Muireann thanks him on the sleeve for all his help and encouragement. 

I love her treatment of Dave Van Ronk’s signature song Green Rocky Road. I have heard a lot of versions of this song in the last few years (and put most of them on this blog page) by people like Dave himself, Van Morrison and Karen Dalton. Other great songs on the album are Police Sergeant Blues by Robert Wilkins and Buck Dancer’s Choice by Sam McGee. I don’t know anything about either of these people I’m afraid, but I do know of the arrangement on the latter song by a great guitarist John Fahey. The album ends with Muireann’s own take of Elizabeth Cotten’s most famous song Freight Train. I thoroughly enjoy listening to this album. I slightly wish When The Levee Breaks by Memphis Minnie had been included because Muireann does a nice version of that song.

Last night on The Blues Show on BBC Radio 2 Muireann guested with Cerys Matthews and I enjoyed her version of Dylan’s Don’t Think Twice Its Alright. You can listen to that show on BBC iPlayer. It is a bit early to wonder what the future holds for Muireann. I see she has some sold out dates in Dublin lined up soon. I hope they book her for the Acoustic Stage at Glastonbury this summer. Muireann hasn’t written any of her own music to date as far as I know, but maybe her greatest contribution might be in helping to keep alive and bringing to public attention the great blues music of the past before it slips into obscurity. We can be very grateful to Muireann for that.

Shake Sugaree

Farewell Apollo Highway.

Apollo Highway (Having a rest).

Last week when I was uptown, I spotted this nice swivel chair in a charity shop. “That would be perfect for me”, I thought, because I spend so much time on my laptop every day I deserve a decent chair to sit on. So, I bought it. The man in the shop said they would deliver it on Monday morning. Then I had an idea. “Would you like a bicycle?”, I asked. I had been thinking of getting rid of my bike for at least a year but hadn’t done anything about it until now. He was pleased to accept it and said they would take it away when they delivered the chair.

New Chair

This morning I was up and about early to wait for their van to arrive. They came at about 11.00. I’m really pleased with the chair. Compared to the old wooden one I was using; this is very comfortable. I feel like Captain Kirk on the flight deck of the USS Enterprise. I felt a bit sad when they took Apollo Highway away though. (I called the bike Apollo Highway because that’s the model’s name on the crossbar) We had lots of adventures together over the last ten years or so, exploring the local highways and byways, and the surrounding villages. We went uphill and down dale together. However, I had been finding the uphill bits a bit of a struggle in recent years. I don’t think I had been out on my bike for about two years. I guess I just lost interest and found walking a lot easier. Another consideration is that the main road through here is so busy with lorries and cars it is quite dangerous for cyclists, So it is probably for the best that I have given away the bike. I gave the man a bag full of extras as well such as the helmet, pump, lock, puncture repair kit and spanner. So, goodbye to Apollo Highway. 

On My Walk

As I was up and about already, and it was a beautiful sunny morning I decided to go for a good walk. It was very cold, but I soon warmed up once I got underway. This time I turned right at the Equestrian Centre and walked along the bridleway to Wellhead. It felt great to be out in the countryside enjoying the fresh air and saying hello to the occasional dog walker that I met. Reflecting on Apollo’s departure I remembered the words of Flann O’Brien in his hilarious book The Third Policeman where he is discussing De Selby’s Atomic Theory of Bicycles, how if you spend too much time on a bicycle you can eventually start turning into a bike when your atoms start mingling with the bike’s atoms.

I quote, “The gross and net result of it is that people who spent most of their natural lives riding iron bicycles over the rocky roadsteads of this parish get their personalities mixed up with the personalities of their bicycle as a result of the interchanging of the atoms of each of them and you would be surprised at the number of people in these parts who are nearly half people and half bicycles...when a man lets things go so far that he is more than half a bicycle, you will not see him so much because he spends a lot of his time leaning with one elbow on walls or standing propped by one foot at kerbstones.”

So, It is just as well that I stopped riding bikes before I turned into one! 😊