Paul Brady | |
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.jpg) Brady in 2009 | |
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Paul Joseph Brady |
| Born | (1947-05-19)19 May 1947 (age 77) Belfast, Northern Ireland |
| Origin | Strabane,County Tyrone, Northern Ireland |
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| Years active | 1965–present |
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| Website | paulbrady |
Paul Joseph Brady (born 19 May 1947)[1] is an Irish singer-songwriter and musician fromStrabane,Northern Ireland.[2] His work straddlesfolk andpop. He was interested in a wide variety of music from an early age.
Initially popular for playingIrish traditional music in a duo withAndy Irvine and later withTommy Peoples andMatt Molloy, he later turned to a morerock-inspired electric style with poignant political lyrics. Some of his most popular songs are: "Crazy Dreams", "Nothing but the Same Old Story", "The Island", "Night Hunting Time", "Steel Claw" and "Paradise Is Here".[3]
Paul Joseph Brady was born inBelfast and raised in the small town ofStrabane inCounty Tyrone, Northern Ireland, on the border withCounty Donegal,Republic of Ireland. His father Seán Brady and mother Mollie Brady née McElholm were school teachers. Brady was educated at Sion Mills Primary School,St. Columb's College, Derry andUniversity College Dublin.[4] He is featured in the documentary filmThe Boys of St. Columb's.[5]
He began learning piano around age six and by the age of eleven he had begun to play guitar, spending hours of hisschool holidays learning every song thatthe Shadows had recorded. He was also influenced byChuck Berry.[citation needed]
In 1963, Brady began performing as a piano player in a hotel inBundoran, Donegal. In October 1964, he attendedUniversity College Dublin and performed with a number ofRnB groups, covering songs by the likes ofRay Charles andJames Brown. The first of these was the Inmates (late 1964–about April 1965), which evolved into the Kult (about April–December 1965), featuring Brady, Jackie McAuley (ex-Them, and future Belfast Gypsies andTrader Horne), Brendan Bonass, and Dave Pennefather. Brady can be seen in the documentary filmCharlie Is My Darling waiting outside Dublin'sAdelphi Theatre forthe Rolling Stones' concert of 3 September 1965. He next joined Rootzgroup (late 1965–May 1966) and Rockhouse (about May–December 1966).[6]
During his time at college inDublin, the country saw a huge rise in interest intraditional Irish music. Brady joined the popular Irish bandThe Johnstons when Michael Johnston left in May 1967.[2] They moved to London, England, 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 groupPlanxty,[2] the band that would subsequently launch the solo careers ofAndy Irvine,Liam O'Flynn,Dónal Lunny, andChristy Moore.
WhenPlanxty disbanded in late 1975, Brady formed a duo with Irvine from 1976 to 1978, a partnership that produced the successful album,Andy Irvine/Paul Brady.[2] The next few years saw him establish his popularity and reputation as one of Ireland's best interpreters of traditional songs.[citation needed] His versions of ballads like "Arthur McBride" and "The Lakes of Pontchartrain" were considered definitive and are still popular at concerts today. In 1975 in New York he recorded two albums forShanachie Records as guitar accompanist to resident Irish fiddlers Andy McGann and Paddy Reynolds. He also recorded a 1976 album,The High Part of the Road, for the same label with Irish fiddlerTommy Peoples.[7] And a 1977 Shanachie album with another Irish fiddler named John Vesey.
In 1978, Brady released his first solo album,Welcome Here Kind Stranger,[8] which won him critical acclaim and was awarded the Melody Maker Folk Album of the Year. However, it would prove to be Brady's last album covering traditional material. He decided to delve into pop and rock music, and released his first album of this genre in 1981,Hard Station.[2]
Brady released a number of successful solo albums throughout the 1980s:True for You (1983),Back to the Centre (1986), andPrimitive Dance (1987). By the end of the decade, Brady was recognised and accepted as a respected performer and songwriter.[2] His songs were being covered by a number of other artists, includingSantana andDave Edmunds.
WhenTina Turner heard a demo of his song "Paradise Is Here", she recorded it for herBreak Every Rule album of 1986.[2] By now, he was a favourite songwriter among such artists asBob Dylan andBonnie Raitt, who would do a duet with Brady on his 1991 album,Trick or Treat.[2] A couple of Brady songs soon appeared on Raitt's albumLuck of the Draw, including the title track.[2]
Dylan was sufficiently impressed by Brady's work to name-check him in the booklet of his 1985 box set,Biograph. The actual quote was "(...) people get too famous too fast these days and it destroys them. Some guys got it down-Leonard Cohen, Paul Brady, Lou Reed, secret heroes, John Prine, David Allen Coe, Tom Waits. I listen more to that kind of stuff than whatever is popular at the moment. They're not just witchdoctoring up the planet, they don't set up barriers (...)".[citation needed]
In 1991, Brady reached number 5 in theIrish Singles Chart withNobody Knows.[9]
Since hisHard Station album (1981), Brady was on various major labels until he created his own label, PeeBee Music, in the late 1990s. He released three albums in the 1990s:Trick or Treat,Songs & Crazy Dreams (a remixed compilation of earlier songs) andSpirits Colliding, which were met with critical acclaim.[citation needed]Trick or Treat was onFontana/Mercury Records and received a lot of promotion. As a result, some critics considered it his debut album and noted that the record benefited from the expertise of experienced studio musicians, as well as producerGary Katz, who worked with the rock groupSteely Dan.Rolling Stone, after praising Brady's earlier but less-known solo records, calledTrick or Treat Brady's "most compelling collection."[citation needed]
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Brady went on to record several other albums (15 in total since he went solo in 1978) and collaborated with a number of other established musicians includingBonnie Raitt andRichard Thompson. In 2006, he collaborated withCara Dillon on the track "The Streets of Derry" from her albumAfter the Morning. He has also worked withFiachra Trench.
He performedIrish language songs as a character in the 2002Matthew Barney filmCremaster 3. He also played tin whistle on the single "One" by Greg Pearle in 2008, from the albumBeautiful You, a collaboration between Greg Pearle andJohn Illsley; this song featured in the 2008 filmAnton, directed by Graham Cantwell.
Brady's fifteenth studio album,Hooba Dooba, was released in March 2010.[10]
As of 2017, a friendship was struck withTheo Katzman (vulfpeck) and Brady toured Ireland in 2019 as half of this duo with Joe Dart, also of vulfpeck,Louis Cato and Lee Pardini.[citation needed]
Brady had continued to tour, record and collaborate with other artists.[citation needed] In 2019,Jimmy Buffett began performing a cover of Brady's hit, "The World is What you Make It". In September 2019, Brady joined Jimmy Buffett on his tour stops in both Dublin and London.[citation needed]
He released the album "Unfinished Business" on his own label PeeBee Music, licensed to Proper Music UK, in 2017.[citation needed]
While Brady and Andy Irvine's planned tour of their 1976 albumAndy Irvine, Paul Brady was impacted by the Covid pandemic, they finished the tour in 2022.[citation needed] Musicians to join them on the tour included fiddle playerKevin Burke and multi-instrumentalistDónal Lunny, both of whom had played on the original album.[11]
In 2009, Brady received an honorary degree ofDoctor of Letters from theUniversity of Ulster, in recognition of his services to traditional Irish music and songwriting.[12][13]
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