Paul Joseph Brady
(born 19 May 1947, Strabane, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland) is an Irish singer-songwriter, whose work straddles folk and pop. He was into a wide variety of music from an early age. During his career he has passed through several major bands and on to a successful solo phase.
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PAUL BRADY TICKETS
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Background
Brady was born in the small town of
Strabane in
County Tyrone, on the border with
County Donegal. Raised a
Catholic, he learnt many traditional
Irish songs and by the age of eleven he had begun to play guitar, spending hours of his school holidays learning every tune
the Shadows and
The Ventures recorded, and was also strongly influenced by
Chuck Berry. In
1963, Brady began performing as a hotel
piano player in
Bundoran,
Donegal. He attended
University College Dublin in
1965 and performed with a string of
RnB groups, covering songs by the likes of
Ray Charles and
James Brown.
Musical career
1960's and 1970's
During his time at college in
Dublin, the country saw a huge rise in interest in
traditional Irish music. Brady joined the popular Irish band
The Johnstons when Michael Johnston left. They moved to
London,
UK in
1969 and subsequently to
New York City in
1972 to expand their audience. Despite some success, Brady returned to
Ireland in
1974 to join the Irish group
Planxty. This was the band that was to launch the solo careers of
Andy Irvine,
Liam O'Flynn,
Dónal Lunny and
Christy Moore.
Planxty dissolved and from
1976 to
1978 he played as a duo with
Andy Irvine, a relationship which produced
Andy Irvine and Paul Brady
. The album was hugely successful and garnered much critical acclaim. The next few years saw him establish his popularity and reputation as one of
Ireland's best interpreters of traditional songs. His versions of ballads like "
Arthur McBride" and "
The Lakes of Pontchartrain" were considered as definitive and are still popular at concerts today.
Solo career
In
1978, Brady released his first solo album,
Welcome Here Kind Stranger
. It won him critical acclaim and it was awarded the Melody Maker Folk Album of the Year, however, it would prove to be Brady's last album with traditional material. He decided to delve into
pop and
rock music, and released his first album of this
genre in
1981,
Hard Station
. The completely self-penned record received mixed reviews, some fans of his older traditional material were not convinced, while the majority recognised his great talent of writing
rock music. Brady released a number of successful solo albums throughout the
1980s,
True For You
(1983),
Back to the Centre
(1985),
Primitive Dance
(1987). By the end of the decade, Brady was recognised and accepted as a respected performer and songwriter. His songs were being covered by a number of other artists, including
Santana and
Dave Edmunds. He wrote "
Paradise Is Here" especially for
Tina Turner's
Break Every Rule
album of
1986 and was a favourite songwriter among such artists as
Bob Dylan and
Bonnie Raitt, who would do a duet with Brady on his
1991 LP,
Trick or Treat
. Brady, in turn, wrote a couple of songs for Raitt's album
Luck of the Draw
, including the title track.
Brady released two albums in the
1990s Trick or Treat
and
Spirits Colliding
. They were met with critical acclaim.
Trick or Treat
was not his first solo album, but it was his first for a major label,
Fontana/
Mercury Records, and received a lot of promotion. As a result, most critics considered it his debut and noted that the record benefited from the expertise of experienced
studio musicians as well as
producer Gary Katz, who worked with the rock group
Steely Dan.
Rolling Stone, after praising Brady's earlier but little-known solo efforts, called
Trick or Treat
Brady's "most compelling collection."
Brady went on to record several other albums and collaborated with
Bonnie Raitt and
Richard Thompson. In 2006 he collaborated with
Cara Dillon on the track "The Streets of Derry" from her album
After the Morning
. He has also worked with
Fiachra Trench.
He performed
Gaelic songs as a character in the 2002
Matthew Barney film
Cremaster 3
.
Solo discography
- Welcome Here Kind Stranger
(1978)
- Hard Station
(1981)
- True for You
(1983)
- Back to the Centre
(1985)
- Full Moon
(1986)
- Primitive Dance
(1987)
- Trick or Treat
(1991)
- Songs & Crazy Dreams
(Compilation) (1992)
- Spirits Colliding
(1995)
- Nobody Knows: The Best of Paul Brady
(Compilation) (1999)
- Oh What a World
(2000)
- The Liberty Tapes
(2002) [Recorded Live at Liberty Hall, Dublin, July 21 1978]
- Say What You Feel
(2005)
With Andy Irvine
- Andy Irvine and Paul Brady
(1976)
DVDs
- The Transatlantic Sessions Series 3
(2007) (various artists)
- The Paul Brady Songbook
(2002)