Bob Bradshaw
Boston - Massachusetts - United States
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Bob Bradshaw Set To Release The Ghost Light April 10th
New England Troubadour Pens Honest & Diverse Americana Offering
Boston, MA- Bob Bradshaw is a storyteller. And like any good storyteller, he possesses the ability to transform himself right before your very eyes, to not only craft a compelling cast of characters, but to inhabit them with complete and utter conviction. Take a listen to Bradshaw’s captivating new album, The Ghost Light, and you’ll find a true chameleon at work. One moment he’s an impulsive daredevil plunging over Niagara Falls in a wooden barrel; the next, a sea-weary pirate lured to his death by a choir of sirens. More often than not though he’s simply one of us, just an ordinary, everyday soul searching for meaning, hope, and redemption wherever he can find it.
Recorded over the past year, The Ghost Light is the product of time spent in quarantine, but it’s by no means a pandemic record. The songs here are timeless, drawing on the kind of fundamental humanity that binds us all as we grapple with heartbreak and regret, memory and nostalgia, loneliness and liberation. Bradshaw writes with a vivid eye for detail on the album, offering up a cinematic series of character-driven vignettes that often slip their most profound revelations between the lines, and his performances are subtle and understated to match, fleshed out with lush, evocative arrangements full of color and nuance. The result is a record as open as it is empathetic, a sharp, transportive collection that calls to mind everything from John Hiatt and Guy Clark to Bruce Cockburn and Nick Lowe in its potent mix of folk erudition and rock and roll urgency.
Born and raised in Cork, Ireland, Bradshaw apprenticed as a journalist as a teenager, but after spending much of his twenties writing a mix of news and short stories (including two stories in the prestigious Irish Press New Irish Writing series), his restless spirit eventually got the better of him and he struck out on his own to see the world with little more than a backpack and guitar to his name. For the next several years he drifted across Europe, surviving off his earnings from busking on street corners and performing in bars until 1989, when he landed a green card and sought his fortunes in the US.
Unsurprisingly, given his history with prose, Bradshaw found he had a knack for writing songs. His was a raw talent- instinctual and impulsive, and his desire to hone his skills led him to the East Coast where he enrolled at the Berklee College of Music. It was there in Boston that Bradshaw launched his prolific solo career, earning widespread praise on both sides of the Atlantic over the course of eight critically acclaimed studio albums. No Depression hailed his tunes as “instant classics,” while The Telegraph UK lauded his writing as “wonderfully atmospheric.” The Patriot Ledger declared, “Bradshaw is an exceptional songwriter”, and Maximum Volume Music wrote: “Like all great songwriters, Bradshaw can mold experiences into something illuminating, and give them universal quality.” Bradshaw became a live fixture in New England performing at clubs in and around Boston most nights of the week until the COVID-19 pandemic brought things to a grinding halt in the spring of 2020.
“That’s where I got the idea to call this album The Ghost Light,” explains Bradshaw. “In the theater world, the ghost light is a single bulb that’s left burning to appease the spirits of the absent performers whenever the hall goes dark.”
With every hall in town dark, Bradshaw found himself writing in a more adventurous, ambitious fashion than before. When it came time to record, he worked both in person with his core electric band (guitarists Andrew Stern and Andy Santospago, bassist Ed Lucie, and drummer Mike Connors), and remotely with hired guns like drummer/producer Dave Brophy (Patty Larkin, Eli “Paperboy” Reed), bassist/engineer Dave Westner (Tim Gearan, Peter Wolf) and bassist Zachariah Hickman (Josh Ritter, Ray LaMontagne), letting the music guide his decisions at every turn.
Ultimately, the album plays like a collection of short works of fiction, each song unique in its form and function yet inextricably linked by a common emotional thread. Every track is an invitation, a doorway to another time and place. The world may have gone dark this past year, but with The Ghost Light, Bob Bradshaw is determined to keep the bulb burning. That’s what storytellers do.
Preview The Ghost Light Here (please do not post):
https://soundcloud.com/user-244114172/sets/the-ghost-light/s-6GldojDsAFd
Watch: Music Video For The Track “Sideways”:
For More Information On Bob Bradshaw:
https://www.facebook.com/BobBradshawmusic
Listen To Bob Bradshaw On Spotify:
Publicity: Matt Kelly / Michael J. Media Group/ 312.882.1392 / matt@michaeljmedia.com
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Discography
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The Art of Feeling BlueLabel: Fluke Genres: Rock Styles: Roots Rock Songs on the Album
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The Ghost LightLabel: Self-Release Genres: Rock, Blues, Country Styles: Roots Rock, Blues, Blues Rock, Americana Country Songs on the Album
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Queen of the WestLabel: Fluke Genres: Folk, Rock Styles: Contemporary Folk, Roots Rock Songs on the Album
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