Rare & True

Ivy Court Records was originally set up as a base to re-release the recordings of Willie Brady, who in the nineteen-fifties and sixties had been a recording artist for Avoca Records in the U.S.A. and Ireland and had quite an amount of success singing Irish songs and ballads. It has been a dream come true for Willie's son Shane, also a passionate musician, to record his favourite songs of his father. This project is a tribute to Willie Brady, who is now, as a musician (and a pioneer of guitar accompaniment in Irish music) sadly almost forgotten. You can now buy Shane Brady's tribute to his father "A Light Shines Out to Sea", revisiting the songs his father played, or Willie Brady's "Rare and True", a collection of Willie's original recordings. How it started... Most children in Ireland are brought up in an environment where it's quite natural for their parents, aunts and uncles, brothers and sisters to burst into song at any given time of day or night. The Brady children were no different, except that their father Willie was a professional singer who happened to enjoy singing at home just as much as he did on the stage. Willie Brady made 24 records in Ireland in the 1950's and 60's. He was playing regularly in Dublin's Olympia Theatre and was a regular guest on Irish Television's "Take the Floor", "Ranch House Revels" and the "Walton's Programme" on R.T.E. Radio. He often toured extensively in America and around Ireland and though he had a busy schedule, he played and sang for his kids (and all the neighbours' kids too...) nearly every day. His early death at the age of only 38 years set an abrupt end to his short career. Three years ago Shane Brady discovered an old box in his parents house, full of old tapes that had been recorded in the late Fifties and early Sixties, mostly at home. They were over thirty-five years old and had never been listened to. They were full of old songs, sessions, talking and joking. The cousins, the neighbours, the babies, the radio, some sketches, the grand parents talking and singing Many of the songs on the tapes and on Willie's records are just not around anymore and this find was reason enough for Shane to make an age-old dream come true, to re-record a collection of those beautiful old songs. The result can be heard on the CD "A Light Shines Out To Sea".