Mary Black moves with equal ease between traditional Irish folk material and contemporary styles spanning blues, rock, jazz, country, and soul. Born into a musical household as the daughter of a fiddler and a singer, she began her professional work alongside her brother and sister in Dublin nightclubs before joining the folk ensemble General Humbert. She remained with that group until 1982, the year she issued her self-titled solo debut. The record reached the Top Five on the Irish album charts and earned the Irish Independent Arts Award for Music.
At Alec Finn’s invitation, Black entered the band De Danann and, one week later, contributed to their album Song for Ireland. She stayed with the group for three years. In 1984 she supplied backing vocals and co-produced Black’s Family Favourites while still appearing with De Danann. During that period she also stepped out on her own with Without the Fanfare, a largely pop-oriented set produced by Declan Sinnott. Several tracks attained gold status, and Black was voted Best Female Artist in the Irish Rock Music Awards Poll for both 1987 and 1988.
Her 1989 release No Frontiers crossed the Atlantic in 1990, entering the U.S. market and climbing to the Top 20 of the New Adult Contemporary chart while also ranking among Ireland’s strongest sellers. That same year she launched an extensive concert tour of Japan. Although her work remained rooted in Irish tradition, Black drew additional inspiration from Sandy Denny and the Fairport Convention as well as Billie Holiday, Aretha Franklin, and Bonnie Raitt.
Throughout the 1990s she maintained a consistent release schedule that included Babes in the Wood in 1991, The Holy Ground in 1993, and her first American-focused project, 1997’s Shine, which leaned toward polished pop; the follow-up, Speaking with the Angel, marked a return to folk. Full Tide appeared in the U.K. in 2005, featuring a cover of Bob Dylan’s “Lay Down Your Weary Tune” alongside new material, and reached American listeners the next year. In 2009 Black contributed to Steve Martin’s The Crow: New Songs for the 5-String Banjo. The studio album Stories from the Steeples followed in 2011, and Sings Jimmy MacCarthy arrived in 2017.
