Speaking With The Angel (CD)

• Category:  Music  »  European Music  »  Celtic
• Format: CD   Learn more about the CD format using Tower WIKI.
• Release Date: March 7, 2000
• Label: Curb Records (USA)
• UPC: 715187795822
• WAPI (Tower ID): 105763155
• Average Customer Review: There are no customer reviews yet. Be the first to write a review!
• Tower.com Sales Rank: #93013 in Music (See Top 100 Music Bestsellers)
• #1667 in European Music (See Top 100 European Music Bestsellers)
• #312 in Celtic (See Top 100 Celtic Bestsellers)

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Personnel includes: Mary Black (vocals, bodhran); Bill Shanley (acoustic, electric & hi-strung guitars, background vocals); Steve Cooney (acoustic & electric guitars, didjerido, acoustic & electric basses, percussion); Donal Lunny (guitar, acoustic & electric bouzouki, background vocals); Frank Gallagher (fiddle, viola, low whistle); Liam O Flynn (Uileann pipes, whistle); Pat Crowley (accordion, acoustic & electric pianos, Hammond organ, keyboards, background vocals); James Blennerhasset (acoustic & electric basses); Liam Bradley (drums, tambourine, background vocals); Rod Quinn (drums, percussion); Noel Bridgeman (percussion, background vocals); Alvin Sweeney, Liam O Maonlai (background vocals).

Producers: Donal Lunny, Mary Black, Steve Cooney.

Recorded at Windmill Lane and Pulse Studios, Dublin, Ireland.

If you want to hear a song sung sweetly, they say, journey to Ireland. As the champion Irish diva in the face of some stiff competition, Mary Black has held tightly onto her crown since the early '90s and, judging by this performance, seems unlikely to relinquish it for some time to come.

This is a magpie's haul of polished performances, with writing credits ranging from old favorites Steve Cooney and Noel Brazil to Sting and Neil Finn. Her voice has certainly changed, the famously clear tone of bygone years sometimes sacrificed for a harder or breathier quality, something that increases the dramatic range of often undemanding texts, and gives us a lovelorn teenager one moment and a bitter charwoman the next. The versions of "Fields of Gold" and "Fall at Your Feet" offer a different pace and slant that provide interesting comparisons to their originals. And while it's the upbeat stomps "Don't Say Okay" and "Message of Love" that stand out on first listening, the ballad "Cut By Wire" is one of her greatest achievements so far--an enigmatic tale drawing parallels between pottery and heartbreak that is poignancy itself. Angelic indeed.

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