Paul Brady

Paul Brady - Trick or Treat - 1990 - Fontana

"Apart from some solo gigs in this period, particularly in the States, I had again taken a couple of years off touring to write and the next move was to go to America to make this record. This was a whole new ball-game altogether. I had just signed with Mercury and they said "Paul, you need a producer" and I said OK. I had produced or co-produced a lot of records myself and I was ready to have somebody else come in. Gary Katz had produced all the Steely Dan records which I thought and still think were some of the greatest records ever made and I was thrilled he wanted to produce me. So I went to America completely excited. I flew out to L.A and we cut all the tracks (except 'Nobody Knows' which I had done at home) in the legendary A&M studios - we were all staying in this cool hotel. It was 'martinis by the pool' and we each had our own cars to drive to the same studio. Rock 'n' Roll. Daft. Delicious. Gary had put a band together which was made up of some of the best players in America. They had come out of blues, jazz and soul which was a huge part of my music too and far from being intimidated, I really felt that these guys would enjoy playing my songs. I guess there has always been a side of me that felt that as soon as anybody really heard what I had to give, they would go "Nice" and they did . It was great. They really liked where I was coming from and I think they had fun. Particularly with Jeff Porcaro playing drums, one of the last projects he did before his tragic death......it was just phenomenal. Michael Landau played some gorgeous guitar. David Paitch's throwaway piano flourish in the middle of 'Blue World' still gives me a thrill. Freddie Washington grooving down in the basement. There was no compromise on this record. It's the way I wanted it to be." © Paul Brady © 2011 All Rights Reserved http://www.paulbrady.com/?page_id=29&shopp_category=12

Paul Brady, the great Irish singer, songwriter, musician and producer, has for over fifty years been at the forefront of popular music in Ireland. He spent the first thirty years of his career absorbing influences from jazz, blues, pop, soul and Irish folk in bands such as The Kult, while at college in Dublin, and later The Johnstons and Planxty. His dramatic interpretations of classic traditional ballads such as "Arthur McBride", "Paddy’s Green Shamrock Shore" and the beautiful "Lakes of Pontchartrain" firmly established him as one of the cornerstones of the new wave of Irish music and song in the 1970s. Paul Brady has forged a reputation as one of Ireland’s finest singer-songwriters, releasing many popular and critically acclaimed records. Songs such as The Island, Crazy Dreams, Nothing But The Same Old Story, Nobody Knows, Follow On, The Long Goodbye and Paradise Is Here have, over the years, given joy and emotional sustenance to generations of Irish at home and abroad. Bob Dylan, a longtime fan of Irish music since his early friendship with The Clancy Brothers in Greenwich Village, named Paul, along with Lou Reed and Leonard Cohen, as a secret hero. Not long after he released ‘Hard Station’, his first album of his own compositions in 1981, his songwriting started to come to the attention of artists worldwide and his first ‘cover’ came the following year when Carlos Santana recorded ‘Night Hunting Time’. Since then his songs have been recorded by many international artists including Tina Turner, Carole King, Art Garfunkel, Bonnie Raitt, Joe Cocker,Trisha Yearwood, Phil Collins, Maura O’Connell, Liam Clancy and Mary Black. Rolling Stone, after praising Brady's earlier but less-known solo records, called "Trick or Treat" Brady's "most compelling collection." "People get too famous too fast these days and it destroys them. Some guys got it down - Leonard Cohen, Paul Brady, Lou Reed, secret heroes,- John Prine, David Allen Coe,Tom Waits. I listen more to that kind of stuff than whatever is popular at the moment. They’re not just witchdoctoring up the planet, they don’t set up barriers…" - Bob Dylan. "Trick or Treat" is one of Paul Brady's greatest albums. It still has a "Celtic" tinge, but is predominantly a "pop rock" album with many different influences. There is a strong Steely Dan connection here, with artists including Elliott Randall, Paul Griffin, Michael Landau, and the late, great Jeff Porcaro appearing on several tracks. Other artists on the album include Hugh McCracken on harmonica, and Bonnie Raitt singing with Paul on "Trick Or Treat". The album was partly produced by the legendary Gary Katz, and is VHR by A.O.O.F.C. [Tracks range from 317-320 Kbps: File size = 76.2 Mb]. Try and listen to the "Andy Irvine & Paul Brady" album, and Paul's brilliant "Hard Station" and "Welcome Here Kind Stranger" albums.

"They're rising banners over by the markets. Whitewashing slogans on the shipyard wall. Witch-doctors praying for a mighty showdown. No way a holy flag is gonna fall. Up here we sacrifice our children to feed the worn out dreams of yesterday, and teach them dying will lead us into glory. But hey, don't listen to me. 'Cause this wasn't meant to be no sad song. I've sung too much of that before. Right now I only want to be with you, till the morning dew comes falling." © Paul Brady (from his "The Island")

TRACKS

1 Soul Child 5:41
2 Blue World 5:36
3 Nobody Knows 4:43
4 Can't Stop Wanting You 4:59
5 You and I 4:35
6 Trick or Treat 5:03
7 Don't Keep Pretending 4:59
8 Solid Love 4:34
9 Love Goes On 5:05
10 Dreams Will Come 3:37

All songs composed by Paul Brady except Track 10 by Paul Brady & V and Legacy

MUSIC CREDITS

Paul Brady - Guitars, Mandolin, Piano, Keyboards, Tin Whistle, Percussion, Drum Programming, Vocals
Elliott Randall - Guitar (tracks: 6, 7, 10), Michael Landau
Freddie Washington, Jimmy Johnson (5) (tracks: 1, 5) - Bass
Betsy Cook (track: 3), Paul Griffin (track: 1) - Keyboards
David Patich - Keyboards
Jeff Porcaro RIP - Drums, Percussion
Billy Schlosser (track: 6) - Percussion
Hugh McCracken (track: 8) - Harmonica
Bonnie Raitt (track: 6) - Vocals (Duet)
Curtis King, Fonsie Thornton, Frank Lloyd - Backing Vocals
Gary Katz, Paul Brady, Jamie Lane - Producers

BIO (WIKIPEDIA)

Paul Joseph Brady (born 19 May 1947, Strabane, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland) is an Irish singer-songwriter, whose work straddles folk and pop. He was interested in a wide variety of music from an early age. During his career he has passed through several major bands and on to a successful solo phase. Brady was born in the small town of Strabane in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland on the border with County Donegal. He was educated at Sion Mills Primary School, St. Columb's College, Derry and University College Dublin. He is prominently featured in the documentary film The Boys of St. Columb’s. He began learning piano around age six and by the age of eleven he had begun to play guitar, spending hours of his school holidays learning every tune the Shadows and The Ventures recorded, and was also strongly influenced by Chuck Berry. In 1963, Brady began performing as a hotel piano player in Bundoran, Donegal. He attended University College Dublin in October 1964 and performed with a string of RnB groups, covering songs by the likes of Ray Charles and James Brown. The first of these was 'The Inmates' (late 1964-about April 1965), who evolved into 'The Kult' (about April–December 1965), featuring Brady, Jackie McAuley (ex-Them, and future Belfast Gypsies and Trader Horne), Brendan Bonass, and Dave Pennefather. Brady can be seen in the film Charlie Is My Darling waiting outside Dublin's Adelphi Theatre for the Rolling Stones' 3 September 1965 concert. He next joined 'Rootzgroup' (late 1965-May 1966) and 'Rockhouse' (about May–December 1966). During his time at college in Dublin, the country saw a huge rise in interest in traditional Irish music. Brady joined the popular Irish band The Johnstons when Michael Johnston left in May 1967. They moved to London, UK in 1969 and subsequently to New York City in 1972 to expand their audience. Despite some success, Brady returned to Ireland in 1974 to join the Irish group Planxty. This was the band that was to launch the solo careers of Andy Irvine, Liam O'Flynn, Dónal Lunny, and Christy Moore. Planxty dissolved and from 1976 to 1978 he played as a duo with Andy Irvine, a relationship which produced Andy Irvine and Paul Brady. The album was hugely successful and garnered much critical acclaim. The next few years saw him establish his popularity and reputation as one of Ireland's best interpreters of traditional songs. His versions of ballads like Arthur McBride and The Lakes of Pontchartrain were considered definitive and are still popular at concerts today. In 1975 in New York he recorded three albums for Shanachie Records as guitar accompanist to resident Irish fiddlers Andy McGann, Paddy Reynolds and John Vesey. He also recorded a 1976 album for the same label with Irish fiddler Tommy Peoples. In 1978, Brady released his first solo album, Welcome Here Kind Stranger. It won him critical acclaim and it was awarded the Melody Maker Folk Album of the Year, however, it would prove to be Brady's last album with traditional material. He decided to delve into pop and rock music, and released his first album of this genre in 1981, Hard Station. The completely self-penned record received mixed reviews, some fans of his older traditional material were not convinced, while the majority recognised his great talent of writing rock music. Brady released a number of successful solo albums throughout the 1980s, True For You (1983), Back to the Centre (1985), and Primitive Dance (1987). By the end of the decade, Brady was recognised and accepted as a respected performer and songwriter. His songs were being covered by a number of other artists, including Santana and Dave Edmunds. For a full list of artists who have covered his songs see his own website http://www.paulbrady.com . Contrary to what is often written, Brady doesn't write for other artists but for his own self-expression. Other artists pick up on his songs because of the inherent quality. When Tina Turner heard a demo of his song 'Paradise Is Here' she recorded it for her Break Every Rule album of 1986. By now he was a favourite songwriter among such artists as Bob Dylan and Bonnie Raitt, who would do a duet with Brady on his 1991 LP, Trick or Treat. A couple of Brady songs soon appeared on Raitt's album Luck of the Draw, including the title track. Bob Dylan was sufficiently impressed by Brady's work to name-check him in the booklet of his 1985 box set "Biograph'. The actual quote was “..people get too famous too fast these days and it destroys them. Some guys got it down- Leonard Cohen, Paul Brady, Lou Reed, secret heroes,- John Prine, David Allen Coe,Tom Waits. I listen more to that kind of stuff than whatever is popular at the moment. They’re not just witchdoctoring up the planet, they don’t set up barriers…". Again, contrary to what has become accepted fact, Bob Dylan never said that Paul Brady was 'one of the five artists worth getting out of bed for'. That was a paraphrase of the original quote by a journalist in an 80's UK music paper. Since his Hard Station album (1981) Brady has been on various major labels until the late 90s when he started his own label, PeeBee Music. He released three albums in the 1990s, Trick or Treat, a remixed compilation of earlier songs 'Songs And Crazy Dreams' and Spirits Colliding. They were met with critical acclaim. Trick or Treat was on Fontana/Mercury Records, and received a lot of promotion. As a result, some critics considered it his debut and noted that the record benefited from the expertise of experienced studio musicians as well as producer Gary Katz, who worked with the rock group Steely Dan. Rolling Stone, after praising Brady's earlier but less-known solo records, called Trick or Treat Brady's "most compelling collection." To date (Nov 2010) Brady has gone on to record several other albums (15 in total since he went solo in 1978) and collaborated with Bonnie Raitt and Richard Thompson to name but two. For a complete list of his many collaborations see his own website. In 2006 he collaborated with Cara Dillon on the track The Streets of Derry from her album After the Morning. He has also worked with Fiachra Trench. He performed Gaelic songs as a character in the 2002 Matthew Barney film Cremaster 3. He also played tin whistle on the single "One" by Greg Pearle in 2008, from the album Beautiful You a collaboration between Greg Pearle and John Illsley. This song "One" featured in the 2008 film Anton, directed by Graham Cantwell. Brady's fifteenth studio album 'Hooba Dooba' was released in March 2010. Widely acclaimed as one of his finest (see reviews on his website) he continues to tour, record and collaborate in a variety of creative projects around the globe. In 2009 Brady received an honorary degree of Doctor of Letters from the University of Ulster in recognition of his services to traditional Irish music and songwriting