Welcome to our fan tribute page for Paul Brady. Paul is a singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, and one of Ireland's most enduringly popular artists.
Born and raised in Strabane, Northern Ireland, on the border with the Irish Republic, he was passionate about a wide variety of music from an early age. Paul began his musical career in his mid-teens in summer jobs playing piano and guitar. On moving to Dublin in 1965 he joined a succession of R’n B / Soul cover bands before being swept up in the resurgent interest in Irish traditional music.
This began a whirlwind trad journey for Paul that saw him join The Johnstons recording seven albums spanning periods in Ireland, London and New York before returning to Dublin in 1974 to join Planxty . From ’76 to ’78 he played as a duo with Andy Irvine, a relationship which produced "Andy Irvine and Paul Brady", an album loved at the time and still sought after in CD form today. The next few years saw him establish his popularity and reputation as one of Ireland's best interpreters of traditional songs. After an acclaimed solo folk album Welcome Here Kind Stranger (1978) which won the Melody maker Folk Album of the year, he decided it was time to move on and write his own material.
Paul’s original and personal approach to song writing was evident from the beginning with the release in 1981 of Hard Station , now accepted as a classic of Irish rock. The albums which followed, True For You (1983), Back To The Centre (1985), Primitive Dance (1987), Trick Or Treat (1991) and Spirits Colliding (1995) collectively established Paul as the pre-eminent Irish singer-songwriter of his generation.
After many years of writing on his own, in the late 90's, he began to collaborate with other songwriters and in the first two years wrote nearly fifty songs, several already covered by other artists.
Since then Paul has continued writing both solo and collaboratively, released more original material and a hugely popular best of album, Nobody Knows: The Best of Paul Brady (1970's - 1990's) (1991), set up his own record label, released The Missing Liberty Tapes , performed many live shows including the celebrated and record breaking Vicar street gigs and released a DVD and CD of his six episode Irish national TV series The Paul Brady Songbook .
Much more information about Paul, including news, tour dates, lyrics, tablature, photos, videos, a guest book and his very own radio station is available on his extensive official website . Paul’s CDs, videos, DVDs and songbooks are also available for sale via mail order through his music store.
