“I’ve always had a soft spot for really talented youngsters, and Brendan is one of the most talented I’ve ever encountered.”
— Tom Rush, Folk Legend

In 2019, Brendan Cleary hit the bottom — and his life restarted.

After years of struggling with addiction while fighting to maintain a modest career as a live musician in Nashville, the world finally came crashing down around him. The music did not come naturally like it used to. After a long dark time, Brendan turned to friends and family and asked for help. It was the beginning of the road back to finding his voice again. For more than a year his guitar remained untouched, his songs unplayed. He wondered if he would ever take the stage again.

Playing hotel bars and restaurants, waiting tables, and scratching out vagrant thoughts and rhymes on spare legal pads, Brendan slowly felt his way back to the songwriter he had always been in his heart of hearts. His driving right hand found its signature blend of fingerstyle blues and folk rhythm, his voice carrying the deep, soulful grit that had been waiting to come back.The stories of his early struggles, losses, and triumphs gradually became songs — thrumming troubadour tales of longing and redemption that now echo across rooms where audiences hang on every word.

In 2024, Brendan was named a finalist in the New Hampshire Music Collective Songwriting Competition. Around that same time, folk icon Tom Rush discovered Brendan playing in the bar of a DoubleTree hotel and invited him to appear on his video podcast Rockport Sundays. Since then, Brendan has had the distinct honor of joining Rush as both supporting act and accompanist at concerts across the United States. Brendan has appeared on NHPR’s The Folk Show with Kate McNally, and on WSCA’s The Button Factory Soundcheck. 

In 2026, Brendan Cleary is preparing to release his debut studio record, Soundbox, a folk-roots collection of songs that trace the long road through addiction, recovery, redemption, and of course, love. Produced by Carter Sanders, the record gathers together years of hard-won writing — songs shaped on barroom stages, open mics, and late-night notebook pages. Soundbox offers an intimate portrait of a songwriter rediscovering his voice and carrying those stories forward to audiences who recognize pieces of their own lives in the music.

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ABOUT BRENDAN CLEARY:

Born and raised in New Jersey, Brendan Cleary’s relationship with music began early, playing anywhere he could and on any stage that would have him. Years of dedication eventually led him to Berklee College of Music, where he studied songwriting and began developing the craft that would shape his career.

At Berklee he discovered a deep love for creating music rooted in the traditions of American folk, blues, and roots music — a connection that has remained central to his songwriting ever since. After two years, Brendan placed his studies on hold as a new chapter opened in Nashville, Tennessee.

Immersed in the city’s rich traditions of country, blues, and Americana, Brendan spent years performing nearly every day on Nashville’s famed Broadway strip. Long days and late nights in honky-tonks and blues bars sharpened his live presence, while his distinctive guitar style began to take shape. Blending acoustic fingerstyle blues with traditional folk rhythm, Brendan’s right-hand playing drives his songs forward with a percussive energy that adds texture and depth to every phrase.

His musical influences range widely across the American roots landscape, drawing inspiration from artists such as Tom Waits, Malcolm Holcombe, Gillian Welch & David Rawlings, Keb’ Mo’, Eric Bibb, Chris Smither, and Dr. John. Listeners have drawn comparisons to artists like Tom Rush, Chris Stapleton, Ryan Adams, and Jason Isbell, songwriters known for their ability to marry raw honesty with powerful storytelling.

Brendan’s voice carries a distinctive tenor warmth with a touch of grit, paired with lyrics that explore the fragile spaces between struggle and hope. His personal journey through addiction and recovery lends an unmistakable authenticity to his songs. Whether telling the troubled story of a young man in “Liquor Boy,” the aching regret of lost love in “Olivia,” or the restless wandering spirit of “Soundbox,” his music paints vivid portraits of lives that feel deeply human and familiar.

Through those songs — and through the long road that shaped them — Brendan Cleary continues to build a growing audience across the Northeast and beyond, sharing stories that remind listeners that even the darkest chapters can lead somewhere brighter.