Mary Black
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Mary Black | |
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Background information | |
Born | May 22, 1955 Dublin, Ireland |
Genre(s) | Celtic Folk |
Occupation(s) | Singer |
Years active | 1984 – present |
Associated acts | De Dannan Frances Black |
Website | Official site |
Mary Black (born 22 May 1955, in Dublin, Ireland) is an Irish singer.
Contents |
[edit] Career
She was born into a musical family. Her father had been a fiddler, her mother a singer, and her brothers had their own group (The Black Brothers). She sang in her family's group (The Black Family) in her youth, and her mother Patty had a song in her brothers' 1996 album, What A Time, by Shay, Michael and Martin Black.
Her sister Frances Black is also an acclaimed vocalist.
Mary Black went on to play in other groups including the traditional Irish band, De Dannan from 1984–1986. Since 1986 she has had a successful solo career, where she went on to try contemporary styles ranging from jazz to country.
She was named "Best Female Artist" in the IRMA poll in 1987, 1988, 1992, 1994 and 1996[1].
She is married to Joe O'Reilly of Dara Records and they have three children, Conor, Danny and Róisín. Danny is a member of the band The Coronas.
[edit] Album discography
- Mary Black (1983)
- Collected (1984)
- Without the Fanfare (1985)
- By the Time It Gets Dark (1987)
- No Frontiers (1989)
- Babes in the Wood (1991)
- The Holy Ground (1993)
- Circus (1995)
- Shine (1997)
- Speaking with the Angel (1999)
- Mary Black Live (2003)
- Full Tide (2005)
[edit] Compilations
- The Best Of Mary Black (1990)
- The Collection (1992)
- Looking Back (1995)
- The Best of Mary Black 1991-2001 & Hidden Harvest (2001)
- Twenty Five Years, Twenty Five Songs (compilation with new and re-recorded material, 2008)
[edit] Voice
For a number of years, What Hi-Fi? magazine considered Black's voice to be so pure, that it was used as an audiophile benchmark for comparing the sound quality of different high fidelity systems.
[edit] Contemporary references
The puppet TV presenters Podge and Rodge have an obsession with Mary, and consider her to be the ideal woman.