When it comes to her music, singer Mary Black has never strayed
far from her Irish roots.
Black, who has outsold both U2 and Sinead O’Connor in
their native Ireland, will take the stage with other Irish female
vocalists in a UCLA Live performance of the Celtic music featured
on the successful “A Woman’s Heart” compilation
albums in Royce Hall tonight at 8.
“I’d say that even in my more contemporary music,
people hear an “˜Irishness’ about what I do,”
Black said. “Maybe it’s the accent, but what I do
sounds Irish even if it’s an American song ““ it’s
in the way you approach turns and accents, and the way things
flow.”
The concert will provide a cross-section of her country’s
living musical landscape, with sets featuring accordionist Sharon
Shannon’s driving brand of Irish traditional performance,
Nashville resident Maura O’Connell’s amalgamation of
American country and Celtic styles, and up-and-coming vocalist Cara
Dillon’s modern bent on traditional sounds.
Black’s own blend of traditional and contemporary styles,
which has made her Ireland’s top-selling artist for over a
decade, will play a prominent role in the show. The event is set to
culminate in a group performance combining the distinctive elements
of the individual musicians.
Thirteen years ago, the “A Woman’s Heart”
album concept began as an attempt to showcase female Irish
performers and later grew to include Celtic performers of different
nationalities. Involving over 20 artists and three critically
lauded compilations, the success of these albums is part of a
growing international interest in Irish sounds that has been
inspired by acts such as Riverdance, the Chieftans and Black
herself.
The material from the “A Woman’s Heart”
records is being highlighted in a U.S. tour for the first time.
Black believes the material is varied enough to suit an American
audience.
“Those who aren’t that well-versed in Irish music
and maybe have heard only one artist … (will) have the
opportunity to educate themselves,” Black said.
Unfamiliarity with these musical styles shouldn’t be a
barrier to audiences’ enjoyment ““ Black is often
willing to cross musical boundaries. Since her early days
performing with her own band, Black Family, in Dublin folk clubs,
the singer has been drawing from a diverse and multicultural
palette to create music she feels can only be classified by the
word “diversity” itself.
“Growing up in a big city, you listen to the Beatles, and
you listen to Bob Dylan, Emmylou Harris, whoever. I was very
influenced, actually, by Billie Holiday, and as a singer I always
felt that she had this kind of emotional passion the way she sang
everything,” Black said.
It was the confluence of these inspirations and an Irish folk
revival in the ’60s, along with a mother and father deeply
steeped in traditional Irish music, that gave Black her consummate
sound.
“Of course, I’ve been strongly influenced by
traditional music and will always include one or two traditional
songs in my set,” she said.
However, Black’s heritage won’t prevent her from
continuing the artistic exploration that has defined her career.
For Black, drawing from a diverse group of inspirations isn’t
a conflict; as she sees it, the widespread musical
cross-pollination of the last two centuries has really done much of
her work for her.
“Two hundred years ago, when many of our emigrants left
shores to go to America, they brought with them their music. And
the music strongly influenced country music, Cajun music (and)
Appalachian music, and I still hear very distinctive traditional
Irish tunes within those styles. So I really do feel that American
music and Irish music aren’t so far apart,” Black
said.
Her “Irishness,” then, isn’t so much a novel
style of music in the record-industry sense as it is a unique and
subconscious way her upbringing, culture and traditional background
have infused everything she does. Whether performing a Dylan song
or a reel, it’s the passion of her country’s musicians
and the intuitive filter of her heritage that Black says has made
her music both stylistically identifiable and widely relevant.
“A lot of different styles have come from people born and
raised in Ireland and on Irish traditional music,” she said.
“It has that passion; it has that ability to make people cry
or to make them want to get up and dance, and I think that comes
across strongly from most musicians that are in our country, no
matter what area they’re in.”
Listeners can expect a rousing performance of accordion- and
fiddle-driven folk intensity and songs that transcend genres and
speak to people on either continent.
“After all,” Black said, “it’s music,
and music shouldn’t have boundaries.”