Brady unpacks his backpack of the obscure and arcane, off-cuts and live, for a pick and mix of myriad delights.

Release Date : 28th March 2025

Label : The Last Music Company

Format : CD

THERE ARE MORE PAUL BRADYS THAN YOU THINK

There are even more than I thought myself, as a fan, and this set acknowledges them all. Note the use of the word acknowledges, as this is certainly not a greatest hits package, or even a best of, being rather an almost random hotch potch of the singers own aural scrap book. Yes, many of his best or signature songs are here, but not necessarily as you remember them. With no sense of order, songs from his 50 odd years of active service are tumbled together, culled from the studio cutting room floor, his portastudio, live performance and from releases less well spotted. Specialist stuff, and likely something for every one of his fans, if not, either, all for all.

That’s the caveat, if needed, and, if a fan, and he has many, you will probably ignore me, such is the potent pull his high, and clear tones can exert, yearning one moment and strident the next, a force that can, where necessary, transcend the material offered. So we get Brady the traditional folkie, Brady the tousle-headed troubadour, Brady the confident yacht rocker and Brady the Nashville pop song peddler, and probably a few more, each with their own merits, all held together by that golden voice.

A beautifully packaged set, it comes with a lavish booklet; 70 pages and the size of the vinyl version yet to appear, which reproduces a smorgasbord of press clippings, photos and review from over the years. (Some I even recall reading, in the smudgy pages of Melody Maker and NME.) Also within this are Brady’s own notes around each and every of the 63 songs, across the 4 CDs.

idiosyncratic Cadence

The set surprisingly opens with a song from neither the singers own hand, nor the traditional canon, being instead the contribution Brady made to a compilation celebrating Bleecker Street, Greenwich Village, in the 60’s, the album’s name also. Let’s Get Together, by Chet Powers is the song and, gifted with a country-ish jangle, it showcases his vocal prowess and his idiosyncratic cadence. So a good start, the mood then a tad diminished by the first of rather too many demos from Brady’s home studio, often with a drum machine to the fore. OK, the song, in demo form, is Trick Or Treat, one of his best, but, interest apart, few of these demo versions caught my ear.

Let’s check out what did, and Heather On The Moor certainly did, archetypal Brady does trad, an outtake from the live Vicar Strret sessions of 2017, when Brady teamed back up with Andy Irvine, Donal Lunny and Kevin Burke. Glorious, glorious stuff, as is all God’s Angels, a duet with Kate Rusby, for her song, which formed part of her album, 20. A remixed Road To The Promised Land is there to confirm his song writing is as top notch as his interpretive skills, the mix highlighting the keyboard intro and the ska intonations of the choppy guitar, less obvious in the original.

A LITTLE MORE TRAD.

This first disc seems to carry a little more trad than the others, and the live version of Paddy’s Lamentation here is exemplary. Another from Vicar Street, Brady plays piano and penny whistle, which makes for an intriguing and enticing combination, for one of his always best loved concert highlights. Another duet, this time with Mary Black, a version of his song I Will Be There. Giving it a slightly different spin, it allows Brady’s mainly backing vocals to embellish Black’s contrasting timbre, his echoed “I will be there“s a thing of wonder.

Amongst the demos is one that does stand out is Not The Only One, with the heart and the soul of the song shining out beyond the arrangement. Followed by a solo live acoustic thrash through Follow That Star, the proof is painted that glossy Brady isn’t always the best, even of that is what was demanded of him, a decade or so back.

EVEN GREATER AGITATION

Moving to disc 2, it is his against expectation triumph of covering Gimme Shelter that comes out first. From the TV show, Sons Of Anarchy, it shows the wilder and more manic version of the singer to a T, with an even greater agitation than Mick Jagger ever managed. Double whammy then, with the stellar version of Nothing But The Same Old Story, from the Irish emigration docuseries, Bringing It All Back Home. Already amongst his best songs, this version renders it the best, as he and Donal Lunny thrash it into an angry submission. All apparently unrehearsed, too. So good that a duet, with Rodney Crowell, of Johnny Cash’s 40 Shades Of Green, prime time Country and Irish is rendered an also ran, which is harsher than it deserves.

STUNNINGLY SIMPLE, SEARINGLY SAD

Moving forward, Don’t Keep Pretending comes stripped of its Latinesque sheen, just voice and six-string, and is stunningly simple, a searingly sad waltz. I was aware of Brady playing and performing in the Irish Gaelic language, never having heard any, so it is a delight to have Gleanntáin Ghlas’ Ghaoth Dobhair here, played again with Lunny. This is from an album of which I was earlier ignorant, Éist (Songs In Their Native Language), and that sent me stat to Discogs. The winning streak continues with a sparse arrangement of a never used song he wrote with the late Dolores O’Riordan (Cranberries), Freedom And Love.

Possibly the earliest contribution comes from a 1969 release, when Brady was a member of the Johnstons, his voice pitched then curiously low. It’s a pointer, nonetheless for the rhythm of his wordplay that he has continued to employ. This contrasts well with an acoustic walk The Way Of Love that excises the 90’s Nashville sheen to reveal the song otherwise hidden. A reprise of Streets Of Derry, from the rightly acclaimed Brady and Irvine “Purple” album, with added Cara Dillon, is another wonderful surprise.

where is arthur?

Half way now, if you need a cuppa, disc 3 has, for me, fewer highlights, with more demos, most of which remind why studio production has such an imortant role. But, interspersed between are a few gems, which probably give away my preferred Brady. so we get the Rocks Of Bawn, from another VA compilation (that I do have), Sult. The unmistakeable sax of Richie Buckley gilds this lily to perfection. (Brady says of him that he is a “genius and brings magic to anything he touches“, and I cannot disagree.) Ahead of that, however is one I hadn’t expected, Continental Trailways Bus, by late period Johnston’s, a bobbing reminisce that, for all the wistful fiddle, whistle and hurdy gurdy backing, beckons in the writing style later embraced for Hard Station, his non-trad breakthrough.

Where is Arthur, you may be asking, the answer being here, the live version of Arthur McBride another Vicar street selection from the 40th anniversary concert of that Purple album. It’s an utter stonker, but, isn’t it always? Later is a live version of one of the songs he wrote in collaboration with Carole King, this time with her present. Another unmistakable voice, they mix in an agreeable oil and vinegar way, where the oil is first pressed olive and the vinegar is balsamic. The final choice cut on this disc is a live studio acoustic storm through Busted Loose, confirming an angry Brady makes for his best vocal style.

powerful and emotive endpiece

The final disc still has some pleasures to reveal, including a distinctive earlier take on Crazy Dreams, wherein he found himself paired with a team of experienced session men. It is an interesting pointer, perhaps, to the decades ahead, but lacks the slight raggedness he eventually and initially ran with, for the Hard Station release. More interesting is a piano demo of Road To The Promised Land, with bass and drums, which imparts a wholly different vibe. Anyone already in posession of this collection will note I am not going to mention the remixed Lennon-McCartney of You Won’t See Me, which depends on how you feel about the original song.

I mentioned the album, Éist, earlier, and, don’cha know, there was a sequel, Éist Aris, with the version of Lakes Of Ponchartrain included here. Another of Brady’s concert deal-breakers, as Bruach Loch Ponchartrain, it hits all the same spots, sung to his own picked guitar. Whilst praise be is the response to that, why is the response to a version of, of all things, Baker Street. In the context of it forming part of a tribute to the late Glaswegian, it is fine but, vocals aside, strays little from the received notion of the song.

AN EMOTIVE ENDPIECE

Óró Sé Do Bheatha Abhaile is an odd one, a traditional tune that Brady was invited to sing for an Irish animated film. with no responsibility outside his singing, the arrangement feel a mix of folktronic and Native American that is quite appealing. Quite quite different is an early version of Trouble Round The Bend, which sounds like a bar band at a rodeo, a road I would like to see him ride more upon. Give or take, that’s about it of the keepers, rounded off by a luscious version of Changing In Your Eyes, a song from the Nashville years, never otherwise released. With just a pair of acoustic guitars, it makes for a powerful and emotive endpiece.

Ample to warrant the investment

As stated, perhaps more for the completist more than the merely curious, there is still ample here to warrant the investment. And, given my cherry picked choices may be not those of all his fanbase, bear in mind there being many who prefer the smoother version of later days. Literally, there is something for everyone. (Except, perhaps, for those wanting and needing a version of The Island, the only song standing out by not being present, surprisingly so.)

It would be remiss not to have this as the video choice, the immensity of Nothing But The Same Old Story, in unplugged mode, with Donal Lunny on bouzouki:

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