Muireann Bradley announces new EP‘Blackwood pew’ out 23 october
Muireann Bradley announces ‘Blackwood Pew’; a physical double EP out 23rd October with new song ‘True Love Will Find You in the End’ - a mythmaking take on the Daniel Johnson classic.
Few artists can make you feel like you’re walking down the time capsule of Greenwich Village in the 1960s and stumble into an open mic night in a random bar the same way Muireann Bradley can. A teenage artist with an old soul; her new track ‘True Love Will Find You in the End’ takes on the Daniel Johnston classic and makes it entirely and utterly her own; still only 19 yet already becoming one of the most compelling voices in folk and roots music. Having seen her live at an entrancing Moth Club show earlier this year – the talk is backed up by a live show that feels like a mythmaking evening; radical and transporting to an entirely new era – building whole universes with each song. About the track, Muireann says - “‘I decided to record a cover of Daniel Johnston’s ‘True Love Will Find You in the End’ because I was fascinated by the song and Daniel’s story after discovering him. Daniel’s recording of the song is deeply emotional and sincere but it also has that childlike purity and naivety lyrically and musically that all his music has. I was interested to see if I could add a little more structure and complexity to the arrangement without losing the simplicity that’s at the heart of why the song works.”
It is appropriate then; that there is a heartwarming story behind the name ‘Blackwood Pew’. Her handmade Australian blackwood guitar was gifted by a fan who was inspired to make something after seeing her live; and it stems from a 200 year old Tasmanian church pew – as such instrumental to writing these songs in the EP. So where better to follow up her debut album ‘I Kept These Old Blues’ with her most personal record yet? It’s a tall order to follow any record that has memorable covers of tracks like ‘Green Rocky Road’, ‘When the Levee Breaks’ and ‘Freight Train’ – yet she builds on experience touring live with headline gigs on both sides of the Atlantic.
Handpicked by Fontaines DC’s Tom Coll and folk collective Broadside hacks to top the sold out bill at Féile Moth, an Irish cultural festival at MOTH Club in London. In addition to that – she can count Brooke Combe and Jeff Goldblum as artists she’s played with; and been on the same billing as Neil Young, Lana del Rey and Beck at the Harvest Moon Gathering in California.
Blackwood Pew tracklisting:
Last Kind Words Blues
Dancing On My Grave
True Love Will Find You in the End
Clementine
I Want You
Not Going Back
See Muireann Bradley live:
August 28th – The Long Road Festival, Lutterworth, UK
September 4th – Harvest Time Blues Festival, Monaghan, Ireland
November 7th – Take Root Festival, Groningen, Netherlands
November 13th – Stone Nest, London, UK
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Muireann Bradley photographed by Carina Kehlet Schou