Mary Mc Laughlin
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Mary Mc Laughlin is a singer / songwriter who is steeped in the Gaelic song tradition of her native Ireland. Mary records, performs and teaches workshops in singing skills, performance technique and Gaelic song and culture.
Mary was born and raised in Northern Ireland. At the age of eleven Mary began to learn Gaelic and was influenced by 'sean nós' (old style) singing which she heard in the Donegal Gaeltacht (Irish speaking area). She was also heavily influenced by Latin Church music in her early years.
During her adolescence she began to listen to contemporary singer songwriters from the USA, in particular Joni Mitchell and Paul Simon. These artists not only provided her first models for song writing but also inspired her to develop her vocal harmony skills.
On moving to London, England at age eighteen she became involved in the English Folk Scene, singing and playing guitar and keyboards with various groups.
Mary's first foray into recording was with the London based folk-rock band "Traitor's Gait." Having continued to listen to, and absorb from, various vocal harmony singers (by now she was listening to "Crosby, Stills and Nash" and "Yes"), Mary saw the studio as the perfect vehicle for conveying all the melodies she could hear in her head, but it was to be a decade before she would have the opportunity to explore multi-tracking in depth.
For five years she played in a duo "Anonyma" with Anne Lister and they released an album "Burnt Feathers" in 1987.
During this time she also played in a band headed by British guitarist Martin Simpson. In 1990 she trained in voice work with Frankie Armstrong, the internationally acclaimed voice teacher, and at this stage resigned from her full time job as a school teacher and began a mixed career of part time teaching, performing, running voice workshops for a variety of clientele, and training teachers in how to teach singing at elementary school level.
After a year of working with Stéafán Hannigan (multi instrumentalist) on the English and Irish Folk scenes, Mary embarked on her first solo album. She began work on "The Daughter of Lir" in 1991 with internationally known producer Jon Jacobs who had been trained by George Martin and had worked with many of the "greats" including Paul Mc Cartney.
"The Daughter of Lir" was released in 1999 and led to her work being heard by the American record company Narada. Narada chose three of Mary's songs to head off the 1995 release "Celtic Voices" which charted at #3 on the Billboard World Music Charts.
That same year Mary acquired a Certificate of Music Education in Voice from Trinity College London. In 1996 she reconnected with her Irish roots and spent the Summer in Donegal on an Irish language refresher course where she learned new songs as well as revising songs from her childhood. She was one of the two featured vocalists on John Whelan's 1997 release on Narada Recordings, "Celtic Crossroads"; the other vocalist being Kathy Mattea.
In 1997 she moved to California to join "Martin Simpson's Band of Angels," and toured throughout the USA that summer.
Later in 1997 Mary began to work with guitarist William Coulter. Together they recorded "Celtic Requiem" for Windham Hill which was released in 1998. This album was a tribute to the Irish traditions of mourning and the songs were in both Gaelic and English.
This was followed by the release of "Daughter of Lir" in 1999 on the Gourd Music label. This release was a combination of the early "Daughter of Lir" with four new tracks, all digitally re mastered in California.
In the summer of 2004 Mary completed her latest album, Crystal Shoe, a collection of mostly original songs.
[edit] Discography
Solo Albums
Crystal Shoe - Gourd Music
Daughter of Lir - Gourd Music
Collaborations
Celtic Requiem - with William Coulter
Guest Artist and Compilations
Celtic Crossroads- John Whelan
Celtic Song - Narada World (2000)
Celtic Voices - Narada
Faire Celts - Narada World (2000)
Conversations with God vol. 2 - Windham Hill (1998)
Celtic Inspirations - Windham Hill (1999)
Celtic Dream - Windham Hill (1999)
Books
Singing in Irish Gaelic
[edit] External links
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