Mary Black – Anthology (3 x Vinyl Set)

A career in three records. Compiled by Mary Black herself as her performing life draws to a close, this triple LP spans 43 years from her 1983 debut on the family-run Dara label through to 2019, arranged chronologically across three eras. Everything you'd want is here: the Sandy Denny and Richard Thompson interpretations that established her, Jimmy MacCarthy's Katie and Bright Blue Rose, Noel Brazil's Ellis Island, the definitive Song For Ireland, Only A Woman's Heart, and the late-period orchestral recordings of No Frontiers and The Dimming Of The Day with the National Symphony Orchestra. Black chose the songs she loves best and the ones that best represent her from beginning to end, and it shows: less a greatest hits than a self-portrait of one of the great Irish voices.