Song for Ireland

Song for Ireland Artist: Mary Black
Label: Gift Horse
Category: Music


Buying details


Average customer rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 1


UPC: 739341005022
EAN: 0739341005022
ASIN: B00000DLXO


Release Date: 1999-03-30

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Irish Folk Irish Folk
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Celtic Celtic
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Listmania:

  1. Featured Celtic Folk/Traditional
  2. Celtic Music Collections
  3. Ireland in Music
  4. Some Celtic music I love...a small list, but mighty.
  5. Music for every mood - an eclectic list
  6. Anam Cara-Irish Folk pt. III

Tracks:

  1. Loving Hannah
  2. Lea Boy's Lassie
  3. School Days Over
  4. Men Of Worth
  5. Both Sides The Tweed
  6. Colcannon (The Black Family)
  7. The Shadow
  8. My Donald
  9. Ellis Island
  10. The Holy Ground
  11. Song For Ireland

Similar Items:

  1. The Holy Ground
  2. The Best of Mary Black, Vol. 2
  3. A Woman's Heart
  4. Woman's Heart 2
  5. No Frontiers

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars Song for Ireland and Legacy of Love.......2004-11-04

This is a beautiful Cd. Song for Ireland brings tears to my eyes evertime I listen to it even though I've never been to where my grandparents come from. If you come from Irish ancestors Song for Ireland and Liz O'Connors Legacy of Love are two recordings you'll always treasure.

5 out of 5 stars Beautiful Irish Recording.......2003-06-05

Mary Black is at her best here, with a recording that emphasizes traditional Irish ballads. (The one Scottish song and the more modern number, "Ellis Island", also fit in due to compatible themes.) The accompaniment is spare, but Black's voice is so beautiful and evocative that this is much more effective than some of her more modern (and somewhat overproduced)efforts. Her a cappella song with the Black Family, "Colcannon", is one of my favorites, as well as the concert recording of "Loving Hannah", but there is hardly a bad number here. If you don't have any of her other recordings, start here.

3 out of 5 stars Beautiful singing, some pedestrain arrangements.......2003-04-08

This is my first exposure to mary Black, but not to several of the songs on this CD. The Holy Ground, for any fan of Irish Music, belongs to the Clancys, and this spare, somewhat somber version, sounds inapporpriate. It's hard to hear rowdy, carousing sailors singing this song in the melancholy mood Mary ascribes to them.

And the title cut is also lacking. Dick Gaughan's version is, to my mind, authoritative. Can't imagine it improved. This certainly doesn't.

The recording often has a sterile feeling to it, possibly the different tracks from different sources. But the sound is of quite skilled instrumentalists laying down their tracks, yet no music-making occurring among them.

That being said, Mary's voice is a delight. The live Loving Hannah is a gorgeous opening, and Men of Worth alone makes it a keeper. Here is a song where everyone was on the same page at the same time. So, as an intro, I guess it shows me what she can do. And it also shows me where to investigate further and where to avoid.

4 out of 5 stars Many Good SOngs for Ireland.......2003-02-01

This album is made of up of a collection of songs from Mary's other albums plus one live song. The album starts off on the slow side but warms quickly and finishes with Mary at her best.

Songs like "Loving Hannah", "Lea Boy's Lassie", "My Donald" and "Holy Ground" are tradtional Irish songs sung by Mary with minimal music - almost sean-nos but not quite. "Men of Worth" is the first song on the album that has all the usual Irish instruments and you love it all the more for it. It also has great harmony as does "Colcannon" which is sung by the entire Black family. "Both Sides the Tweed" is a Robert Burns poem put to music. Even though Burns was Scottish, Mary's voice really brings the song to life. "Schooldays Over", about leaving school to work in the mines, and "The Shadow", a song about Michael Colins, are both slower songs with less music which helps to showcase Mary's fantastic voice. "Ellis Island" is almost a pop song with it's beat and music but can bring you to tears as you listen to individuals say goodbye to each other as they immigrate to America.

By far the best song on the album is "A Song for Ireland". Not only is it grand in it's presentation and it's lyrics colorful but Mary's vocals would give divas like Celine a run for their money. The entire album is worth having just for this song alone.

This is not my favorite of Mary's albums but it's way up there and I'm glad I added it to my collection.

5 out of 5 stars The best of the best.......2002-03-23

Brutal honesty: Mary Black has one of the most beautiful voices in creation, and she consistently wastes it on mediocre material. Fortunately, she has released almost as many "collections" of good material as she has new CD releases. "Song For Ireland" is a collection of more traditional or traditionally-inspired Irish material, and these are truly among the best performances of her career. Each of these, from the haunting "Loving Hannah" to the anthemic title song, is a gem unlike any you've heard anywhere else. In between, "School Days Over", "Both Sides the Tweed" and "Men of Worth" are rich with the texture of the Irish landscape (okay, "Both Sides" is actually about Scotland). If you haven't heard Mary Black, this is the one to start with. If you already like her music and don't own this, one listen and you'll wonder how you missed it. One note: this CD doesn't contain one of her all-time best vocals, "Will Ye Gang Love". For that, you have to find the first "Black Family" CD, which features Mary, her sister Frances and their three brothers. It's a wonderful CD in its own right, and well worth finding on most website stores.

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