The following in an excerpt from an interview with Paul Brady, conducted by Aidan O'Hara. It originally appeared in the October 2001 issue of Irish Music Magazine.

Paul Brady's songs have been recorded by a who's who of national and international artistes, and several of them will be dropping in as guest performers throughout the month in Vicar St. They include, Bonnie Raitt, Maura O'Connell, Curtis Stigers, and Roman Keating. Other guest artistes will include friends with whom Paul has performed over a period of more than 30 years: Mark Knopfler, Andy Irvine, Donal Lunny, Christy Moore, Sinéad O'Connor, Brian Kennedy, Sharon Shannon, and others yet to be named.

Those 'others' could well include a man to whom Paul paid a high tribute indeed: "Accordion player, James Keane, had a huge effect on me, and I owe my entire introduction into traditional music to him," he said. It's worth quoting Paul at length on how James influenced him, because it demonstrates very well his open and modest nature and the generous way he has of acknowledging the talents of fellow musicians. It also illustrates the somewhat relaxed and informal nature of the business at the time.

"Around the mid-sixties, I was playing at folk clubs doing my own act. Mick Moloney had joined the Johnstons at that stage, and they were looking for an opening act. He knew that I was good at blues, and one way or another, a likely opening act for them. They had a Monday night residency in the Embankment in Tallaght. Also, one of their opening acts was James Keane, the accordion player, brother of Seán of the Chieftains. One day James asked me if I would back him up, and I said I didn't know anything about them tunes. He said I'd pick it up fairly quickly. We rehearsed for half an hour in a back room, and then I got up with him one night at the Embankment. He was so brilliant as a musician and so full of dynamic personality and confidence; and I was swept along with this. I gradually got drawn into the music, and suddenly began to realise that that there was an awful lot more to it than thought."