Prolific Irish singer/songwriter
Paul Brady passed through several major bands before embarking on a long and successful solo career. Starting his performance life as a hotel piano player in Donegal at the age of 16, he moved on to a series of rhythm & blues bands in the mid- to late '60s, including Rootzgroop, Rockhouse, and the Kult. They were followed by a stint with
the Johnstons as a guitarist and singer that ended in 1974, and a shorter one with Irish folk group
Planxty that saw
Brady touring extensively. It was in that band that he met
Andy Irvine, and in 1976 the duo released the album
Andy Irvine and Paul Brady.
Brady's solo debut came in 1978 in the form of the folk album Welcome Here Kind Stranger.
He followed it in 1981 with the appropriately named
Hard Station,
Brady's engagement with commercial rock. He went on to release four more firmly pop/rock albums in the '80s (
True for You, Full Moon,
Back to the Centre,
Primitive Dancer) before 1991's
Trick or Treat landed him on the Billboard 200 in the U.S. The studio LP
Spirits Colliding followed in 1995 before Rykodisc closed out the '90s with
Nobody Knows: The Best of Paul Brady.
Having by then collaborated with the likes of
Bonnie Raitt,
Richard Thompson, and
Béla Fleck, just to name a few, Compass signed
Brady to a record deal and reissued his catalog, including the best-of compilation, in the new millennium. Still recording original material,
Carole King,
Will Jennings, and
Bob Thiele were among his impressive songwriting collaborators on 2000's
Oh What a World. A year later,
The Missing Liberty Tapes captured a 1978 show at Dublin's Liberty Hall, and 2002's
The Paul Brady Songbook highlighted live performances from RTÉ’s six-part TV series on
Brady's music. His next studio album, 2005's
Say What You Feel, hit the Top Ten in Ireland.
It proved to be his final album for Compass before making his Proper Records debut with 2010's
Hooba Dooba. The label also released Dancer in the Fire: A Paul Brady Anthology in 2012 and the live set
Vicar St. Sessions, Vol. 1 in 2015. It featured guests such as
Raitt,
Van Morrison,
Mark Knopfler, and
Sinéad O'Connor. Offering nine original songs alongside the traditional tunes "Lord Thomas and Fair Ellender" and "The Cocks Are Crowing,"
Unfinished Business followed in 2017. ~ Marcy Donelson & Leon Jackson