Paul Brady - Live At Vicar Street (2001)

Paul Brady

One of Ireland's most successful singer/songwriters who made his career in the early 70's with the landmark Irish folk band, "Planxty", performing this year at the Port Fairy Folk Festival, with some of his memorable songs telling tales of contemporary heros and romantics.
He hails from Northern Ireland, growing up in the 50’s with a good mix of rock n’roll and folk music as early musical influences.

With Planxty traditional music came back into the charts. The band featured an all-star lineup of musicians (Andy Irvine, Liam O'Flynn and Christy Moore) who all went on to have highly successful solo careers. Paul Brady worked with them for some years and during that time was considered to be one of the best singers of traditional song in the country.

Brady and other Planxty band members brought generations of music lovers to Irish music and as solo artists, have continued to work within the tradition as well as developing their own unique musical styles.

Brady’s passionate interpretations of traditional songs brought him into the spotlight but so did his songwriting. His first solo album was released in 1978 and was voted “folk album of the year” by Melody Maker magazine. For Brady this album - “Weclome Here Kind Stranger”, was a huge success. It proved he could write his own material and that audiences were keen to hear his take on contemporary life in Ireland .

He then released “Hard Station” in 1981 - an electric album which confounded the folk purists, but this this album with it’s mix of traditional and R & B, rock and blues, is now regarded as one of the classics of Irish rock.

Brady’s songs have given him huge success - many of them have been picked up by singers like Bonnie Raitt , Tina Turner, Cher, Art Garfunkel, David Crosby and lots more – the list goes on and on. In the late 90’s he had an amazing year when he collaborated with other songwriters and in the space of 2 years, wrote nearly 50 new songs!

He’s constantly touring - singing and playing guitar and piano and has
been back in the limelight in the last three years with the release in 2001 of his CD “The Missing Liberty Tapes” a live recording made in Dublin in 1978 which featured a host of other great Irish musicians including Andy Irvine – who he was working with as a duo at the time.

Later in 2001, Brady performed a record-breaking show at Dublin’s top music venue, Vicar Street where he played 23 sold out shows during October.
Last year saw Ireland’s national broadcaster, RTE presenting a
6-part series on Brady and his music, called “The Paul Brady Songbook” which Brady released as a CD and DVD set. Both have been released in the USA and Canada and are also available via his website.