Welcome My Gentle Readers, I’m going to try blogging again. It will be different now. I’m not going to try and blog every day and I’m going to mainly blog about music. Think of it as Wise Madness Presents Gord’s Gold. Some of you might know me from Gord’s Gold, to those people, Welcome My Gentle Listeners.
What inspired me to return to writing was seeing Muireann Bradley last night at the First Unitarian Church of Brooklyn, the former home of First Acoustics. This show was presented by The World Music Institute. In November 2023 Tompkins Square Records sent me I Kept These Old Blues for radio play. It was by Muireann Bradley who I never heard of. I was immediately captivated. When I heard Richland Woman Blues it struck me that it sounded like Mississippi John Hurt. I checked and saw that he did write it. I then checked out Muireann’s website and saw that she was only 16 years old. What was an Irish teen doing playing songs but African Americans from the first half of the 20th century? How did she get that good? I listened to the album and immediately put most of the songs and in my “to play on Gord’s Gold” playlist. My next order of business was finding out how to pronounce her name. Tompkins square said MOOR-un but I had my doubts. I listen to the Irish shows on WFUV ever Sunday and even listened to the Irish Language show Mile Failte until it was canceled. The main thing I learned is that you can’t guess how to pronounce Irish names. From Eamon O’Leary I learned you must know from what part of Ireland the person is from as pronunciations vary geographically. I went to the source, Muireann’s personal Facebook page and asked her. She told me that it was murr-inn, equal stress on both syllables.
I preceded to play the hell out of that album, seven songs. Letting the world know about Muireann became one of my mission statements. As I’ve often noted it’s fortunate for the world I’m not an evangelical Christian or I’d evangelizing to all of you. I want the world to love what I love. I finally got to see her in April of this year. I went with musicians, Mark, Beth, and Katherine, and music, especially guitar aficionado Jim. We all came away as impressed as all hell as was everyone I talked to or overheard in the audience. We knew we heard something extraordinary.
As soon as I saw that she was going to play in New York again I bought my ticket. When I got to the church most of the seats were taken but I found one close, it’s pews so people are reluctant to sit in the middle of a row. I asked my neighbors how they knew Muireann and found out that none of them did. They were fans of the World Music Institute. That’s the goal of any presenter worth their salt, to have people come just because you are presenting them. That’s how you introduce new artists. I don’t know of anyone other than me that’s playing them on the radio around here.
So, what did I think? I was delighted to find how much she’s grown as an artist since April. It might seem impossible considering how great she was, but not surprising, that’s what great artists do, especially ones in their teens, they are always looking to improve. There is no artifice to Muireann’s performance. She just sits there and makes incredible music. When she talks it’s about the history of the songs, there’s no stage patter. She sometimes giggles. Muireann is an innocent 18-year-old Irish girl when she talks. When she sings, she transforms into an old Black woman who has seen it all but sold her soul to the devil to keep her voice crystal clear. Muireann has absorbed everything she heard, internalized it, and it comes through in her singing and playing. She then kicked my respect for her up a notch when she finished with an original song. It fit right in with the classics she had been playing until now. You know how you can’t believe that John Lennon wrote In My Life when he was only 23, Muireann creates the same cognitive dissonance.
If you’ve listened to my show, spoken about music with me, or listened to my show, you know that almost everything I rave about is either clever lyrics, complex harmonies, virtuosity in string bands or fiddlers. I’m rarely impressed by a solo musician playing covers on a guitar. There is so much less going on. Yes, Muireann can enrapture me even with a guitar solo. That never happens. She creates the complexity of a string band on one guitar. I have no idea who she does it. When you add to that singing that reaches deep into my soul and you have rapture.
I had forgotten that there was a second artist on the set. I couldn’t understand why people stayed in their seats. I found out when I went to try and talk to Muireann and asked the woman on the stage if that were possible and she told me she was on next. I wasn’t going to leave, I don’t give up a chance to discover another artist to love, so I went to the bathroom and sat down for the second artist. She was not my cup of coffee, I don’t like tea, but perhaps that means she is my cup of tea. Perhaps she was great. She certainly has musical chops, but her music did not speak to me even if she did.
After her set I asked the emcee if I could talk to Muireann, I told him I was the first American DJ to player her that reports to the Folk DJ list. I thought I might need a bit of mojo. It worked and I spoke to her and her father John, who I corresponded to, way back at the start. She was as I expected the same off the stage as she was on. I dismissed my theory that she sold her soul to the devil as she’s much too sweet for that. No, she’s just brilliant and I’m sure she put in 3000 hours of practice. If she didn’t and I was a musician I might hate her. Being that good without effort wouldn’t be fair to the rest of us. I wish I had the technical ability to do a remote interview with her for Gord’s Gold. I told her to go to Folk Alliance and NERFA next year. If she does, she should get a formal showcase, but I’d sell my soul to present her in the Presenters Showcase. I’m not as sweet as Muireann.
Going forward I’m going to try and post at least once a week with a recap of the week’s show. Ineed another creative outlet and it’s good for my mental health. I had an obstructed view at the show so I couldn’t take a video, but I can post one of Muireann’s videos, so you have a taste of her genius.
Wise Madness 