The Paul Brady fanclub

New York musician and singer Curtis Stigers had a massive worldwide hit in the early ’90s with his soulful ballad ‘I Wonder Why’. Shortly after, he met Paul Brady and the two have collaborated on a number of projects together, performing live on several occasions and writing songs such as ‘Well Worn Love’ which appeared Stigers’ Brighter Days album.

“It was through Bonnie Raitt that I first came across him,” Stigers reveals. “I was a fan of hers and she knew Paul. Somehow I ended up with a copy of Trick Or Treat. I couldn’t’ believe anyone could write songs like that. I thought they were astonishing. Then in 1992 I was opening for Eric Clapton and Bonnie Raitt at a show in Wembley Arena. I met Paul walking up backstage and I started gushing over him, telling him how great I thought he was. I think he thought I was nuts.”

Stigers invited Brady to appear with him at his own show in Dublin’s National Stadium and they performed together at the IRMA awards in Dublin in 1993. “He played piano on my song ‘I Wonder Why’ and I played sax on one of his songs,” Stigers recalls. “It did me a lot of good, he lent a lot of cred to what I was doing. Then we just fucked off to a pub and talked a lot. We got together and wrote a couple of songs, which was a pretty amazing experience. The music just comes out of him, he closes his eyes and it channels through him.”

Stigers has since become a huge fan of Brady’s earlier work “He’s blessed, or cursed with diversity. He could have rested on the Irish thing and became the King of Irish folk music but he’s good at so many different styles. I started with Trick Or Treat and went right back to the Andy Irvine record which knocked me out. A lot of times you have to get him drunk at a party to get him to play that stuff. It took me a year to get him to play ‘Arthur McBride’. I was always crazy about ‘Nothing But The Same Old Story’ and ‘The Island’ is a beautiful love song, which has this brutal and sad quality. To be able to write a song like that takes a real talent.”