Ireland

Irish guitar wiz Muireann Bradley picks her movie and music favorites

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A remarkable talent from the twin town of Ballybofey in County Donegal, teenager Muireann Bradley blends traditional blues stylings with her own distinctive interpretations of classic tunes spanning decades.

We asked Muireann for her choice cultural picks…

FILM

I recently discovered the 1980s cult classic black comedy Withnail and I.

I absolutely love this film and can’t stop watching it. It is hilarious and tragic at the same time. Richard E. Grant gives an incredible performance as an upper-class, alcoholic, out-of-work actor who goes on holiday “by accident” to the countryside with his flatmate and fellow unemployed actor, “I,” played brilliantly by Paul McGann.

The script is so memorable and quotable. I keep catching myself shouting, “I want the finest wines available to humanity. I want them here, and I want them now!”

I also love how the film uses music, especially the Jimi Hendrix tracks. The scene of them flying down the motorway in a clapped-out Jaguar, “making time” to Voodoo Child (Slight Return), is unforgettable.

MUSIC

I am known for playing country/folk blues, but I listen to all kinds of music.

I’m a big fan of Sierra Ferrell. I’ve loved her music for a long time and used to watch her performances on YouTube before she even had a record deal. Her voice is beautiful, and her songwriting is exceptional.

It’s great to see someone so talented, who writes all their own material, achieving so much success in a genre that might not be considered mainstream. I was thrilled to see her win four Grammys, including Best Americana Album, and I can’t wait to catch her live. My favorite song of hers is In Dreams.

BOOK

I just finished reading George Orwell’s Animal Farm. My mother recommended it as an introduction to Orwell’s writing. I’ve heard so many people using the term “Orwellian” recently, and I wanted to fully understand its meaning.

The novel is short but incredibly engaging. Even though Orwell wrote it in the 1940s, inspired by the rise of Stalinism, it still resonates today. For me, it’s about human nature, and that never changes. I also enjoyed the surreal humor—pigs in charge! Next up: 1984.

THEATRE

The last play I read was Sive by John B. Keane, which I studied at school. The story is incredibly sad and upsetting, particularly how Sive is forced to leave school and marry an old man.

Reading it made me grateful for how much rural Ireland has changed since the 1950s. Young girls now have far more freedom and opportunities. I would love to see Sive performed in the theatre someday.

TV

I’ve been watching Breaking Bad—I’m on Season 4, and I’m hooked. It’s fascinating to see how much the characters have changed since the first episode. Why do I still root for Walter White, even though he’s done so many awful things?

I also really enjoyed Peaky Blinders—Cillian Murphy is phenomenal. And I was so obsessed with Game of Thrones that I watched the entire series twice.

On a lighter note, I loved Ricky Gervais’ The Office.

GIG

Folk/blues legend Eric Bibb played a sold-out gig at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in January as part of TradFest, and I had the honor of opening for him. He is one of my biggest heroes. I grew up listening to his music and have learned so much from him.

His performance was incredible, blending old and new songs. The cathedral’s atmospheric lighting added to the experience.

Later this month, I’ll be playing on Joe Bonamassa’s Keeping the Blues Alive sea cruise from Miami to Mexico. I’m excited to see not only Joe but also Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, Eric Gales, Larkin Poe, and one of my favorite country blues artists, Nat Myers. I can’t wait to jam with him!

ART

While playing at the Black Box in Belfast during the summer as part of the Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival, I took the chance to visit the Ulster Museum. There, I saw two Caravaggio paintings on loan: The Taking of Christ and The Supper at Emmaus.

The emotional impact of these paintings, especially The Taking of Christ, was overwhelming. The size, scale, and realism are astonishing, particularly how Caravaggio captures light. I couldn’t look away from the way the light strikes the soldier’s armor as he grabs Christ—it’s a moment of chaos frozen on canvas, something even film struggles to achieve. If you ever get the chance to see it, you won’t forget it.

RADIO/PODCAST

There are so many great radio shows. I love listening to Dave Fanning, John Creedon, John Kelly’s Mystery Train, Ray Cuddihy, and Fiachna Ó Braonáin. I also try to catch Cerys Matthews’ blues show on BBC Radio 2 whenever I can. Iggy Pop’s show on BBC 6 Music is fantastic too.

I recently discovered Theme Time Radio Hour, a radio show/podcast Bob Dylan hosted between 2006 and 2009. Each episode has a different theme—some of my favorites include “The Devil,” “Eyes,” and “Coffee.” The “Devil” episode opens with Robert Johnson’s Me and the Devil Blues. As expected, there are a lot of blues tracks, and Dylan himself is just effortlessly cool. He’s Bob Dylan!

TECH

The app I use most is Amazing Slow Downer (ASD). It allows you to change the pitch and speed of any piece of music. I use it to figure out complicated guitar parts that are hard to hear at full speed. One of its best features is the ability to re-pitch music to match my guitar in seconds—so much easier than retuning!

I also love PictureThis, a plant identification app. I’ve always been fascinated by trees, plants, and flowers, especially how they were used in the past. If I see a weed on my walk that I don’t recognize, the app tells me exactly what it is and its history.

THE NEXT BIG THING…

There are some amazingly talented young electric blues/rock guitarists emerging right now. One of the biggest names to watch is Grace Bowers, a young Californian guitarist who is the same age as me. She has a strong stage presence and a really cool image. Her performance with Chris Martin during the Grammys’ In Memoriam tribute was incredible.

However, I think the future of blues/rock guitar is Toby Lee, a super-talented 20-year-old from England. His latest album, House on Fire, is fantastic. He’s been touring with Jools Holland as well as leading his own band. I saw him on a small stage at Black Deer Festival in the UK last summer, and he blew everyone away. He’s an incredible performer and just keeps getting better.

I Kept These Old Blues is out now

Source: Something for the Weekend: Muireann Bradley’s cultural picks

Breaking The Waves: An Interview with Brìghde Chaimbeul

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By Christine Costello

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Off the back of playing Glastonbury, and the release of her thrilling new album Carry Them With Us, Christine Costello speaks with acclaimed smallpipes player Brìghde Chaimbeul about the sounds and inspirations behind her singular craft

Photos by Monika Ruman 

Carry Them With Us is Brìghde Chaimbeul’s second solo album and features a combination of original compositions and songs inspired by Gaelic folklore and archive recordings. The album is as dark as it is whimsical from the soaring lilts of ‘Banish the Giant’ to weighted tragedies of ‘Oran an Eich Uisge’.

Chaimbeul’s rich understanding of her instrument adds a new layer of depth to these old tunes, injecting them with an infectious modernity that invites audiences to explore the history of the Highlands, all without losing the enigmatic charm of their origins. 

Despite the Scottish roots and heavy Scottish influence in her music, Chaimbeul’s unprecedented popularity with Irish audiences continues to grow. While currently residing in Northern Ireland and a frequent collaborator with Irish musicians such as Radie Peat of Lankum, she believes there’s an added explanation for this resonance: “A lot of what I play is rooted in traditional music and although a lot of the material is Scottish, there’s a strong connection between Scottish and Irish traditions, not just in the language, but the songs as well.” 

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Review: Brigid Mae Power’s “Songs for You” 

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Brigid Mae Power

Brigid Mae Power’s ‘Songs for You’ is a timeless record filled with brilliant moments that will melt the heart of even the most cynically covers-album-averse listener.

By Thomas Blake

Recording a cover of any reasonably well-known song is always a balancing act. How do you make something new enough for it to be worth the effort without shattering the appeal of the original? A cover, as opposed to an interpretation of a traditional song, carries with it an implicit debt to someone else’s creativity, and a corresponding duty to honour that creativity. It’s tough to get right – the deluge of frankly appalling tribute acts that have flooded the live music scene in recent years is proof enough of that – but on the rare occasions it does work, it can seem like a kind of alchemy.

On Songs for You, Brigid Mae Power has mastered that alchemy. She served notice of her ability to make other people’s material her own with a wonderful version of Tim Buckley’s I Must Have Been Blind on her 2023 album Dream from the Deep Well, and a year later, she has gone all the way with an album of nine covers. All of them are songs loved by her late father, or those she listened to while caring for him, and it is that sense of care, perhaps, that permeates these songs, and gives them an appeal far more enduring than your average cover version.

Most of them are reasonably well-known songs from the country, folk, and folk-rock neck of the woods. The main exceptions are Television’s See No Evil, which loses its New York snarl and circular riff but gains in return a newly-framed melody and a quiet kind of positive energy, and closer You Don’t Know Me, a sweet soul-pop classic made famous by Ray Charles. Power stays true to the song’s melancholy sweetness and plays subtly on its country-soul leanings. It makes for a truly timeless performance.

And that timelessness is all over the album. Power’s take on Bert Jansch’s Fresh as a Sweet Sunday Morning unfolds with an easy languor that becomes spine-tinglingly beautiful, indeed almost uncanny, with repeated listens. She has a knack for taking songs that could easily become cloying in the wrong hands and making out of them something feather-light but emotionally rich. Country yodeler Slim Whitman’s Rose Marie is stripped back to its essentials and becomes a kind of brief, elemental lament. Missing You, a quite brilliant modern ballad of the Irish diaspora written by Jimmy MacCarthy but made famous by Christy Moore, floats with an ethereal beauty that makes the hardships it describes all the more poignant.

The nuanced, minimal instrumental backing is a crucial part of the album’s appeal. Angel Blood (a Cass McCombs song) is backed by Power’s hazy organ; the newest song on the album, its nostalgic shimmer helps it fit right in. Walk On Out of My Mind, taken from the Waylon Jennings version, has an easy percussive clop. Roy Orbison’s In Dreams is almost impossibly laid-back, before Power’s voice rises lark-clear over the gentle strum of acoustic guitar.

Neil Young’s Mellow My Mind might be the best of all. Here, Power has achieved the trick of making me think again about a song I thought I knew inside-out: I always saw Mellow My Mind as a largely innocuous track on Tonight’s The Night, an album which has never quite got to me in the way it gets to most Young fans. Hearing Power’s version, though, has made me think again. Her voice has a unique way of highlighting a melody, and here it grapples with Young’s downbeat, burned-out original and comes up with something jewel-like and light-dappled. It’s one of many brilliant moments on a record that will melt the heart of even the most cynically covers-album-averse listener.

Songs for You (20th December 2024) Self Released

Pre-Order the Digital and Vinyl: https://brigidmaepower.bandcamp.com/album/songs-for-you

Source: Brigid Mae Power – Songs for You (Album Review) – KLOF Mag