The Donegal finger-picking guitarist and singer, who rose to fame following her show-stopping appearance on Jools Holland’s Annual Hootenanny on New Year’s Eve 2023 performs at An Grianán as part of this summer’s Earagail Arts Festival.
The Ballybofey native, who primarily performs country, ragtime and Piedmont-style blues from the 1920s and 1930s, released her debut album On I Kept These Old Blues to wide acclaim in December 2023.
Muireann delights in interpreting and performing the music of these early blues masters, always putting her own unique stamp on the tunes.Her influences include Rev Gary Davis, Blind Blake, Mississippi John Hurt, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Robert Johnson, Elizabeth Cotten, and Memphis Minnie to name just a few.
The 17-year-old grew up surrounded by guitars and old blues and began playing at the age of nine when she convinced her father to buy Muireann her first guitar and teach her.
Muireann first came to international attention when a performance of Blind Blake’s Police Dog Blues she posted on YouTube went viral and caught the eye of Josh Rosenthal (Tompkins Square Records, San Francisco) who suggested she record an album.
The songs and instrumentals, which would make up her debut album, were all recorded live in the studio in one or two takes to make the process as similar as possible to that of the original classic country blues artists.
Presented as part of the Earagail Arts Festival, 13 to 28 July 2024.
