With her solo debut album, Mary Black established the pattern that would hold true for most of her recording career: a program of songs both old and new, some of them truly traditional and some only sounding that way, and one or two modern pop clunkers.
In the traditional category is her gorgeous rendition of "Rose of Allendale," which was a significant hit for her in Ireland and which is marred by the thoroughly superfluous presence of a steel guitar, and a spectacularly heartbreaking rendition of "Anachie Gordon," which is marred by nothing at all.
For modern folk material there is a wonderful Mick Hanly song called "Crusader." And for misbegotten pop clunkers there is a completely embarrassing cover of John Sebastian's "Lovin' You," which seems designed mainly as an opportunity for producer Declan Sinnott to show off his considerable guitar chops, and a spare arrangement of Karla Bonoff's "Home." In the surprisingly successful category is Black's tender and gentle take on "God Bless the Child." Mary Black is not a perfect album by any means, but it's an auspicious debut overall.
| Title/Composers | Performer | Listen | Time | Size | Size | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Loving HannahTraditional | Mary Black | Play | 04:42 | 10 MB | 24 MB |
| 2 | My DonaldTraditional | Mary Black | Play | 03:00 | 6 MB | 12 MB |
| 3 | CrusaderMick Hanly | Mary Black | Play | 04:43 | 10 MB | 25 MB |
| 4 | Anachie GordonTraditional | Mary Black | Play | 06:31 | 14 MB | 34 MB |
| 5 | HomeKarla Bonoff | Mary Black | Play | 03:27 | 7 MB | 18 MB |
| 6 | God Bless the ChildBillie Holiday, Arthur Herzog, Jr. | Mary Black | Play | 04:55 | 11 MB | 22 MB |
| 27 mins | 62 MB | |||||
| 27 mins | 138 MB | |||||
| Artist | Job | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Philip Begley | Engineer |
| 2 | Phillip Beley | Engineer |
| 3 | Mary Black | Arranger, Primary Artist |
| 4 | Karla Bonoff | Composer |
| 5 | Mick Hanly | Composer |
| 6 | Colm Henry | Photography |
| 7 | Arthur Herzog, Jr. | Composer |
| 8 | Billie Holiday | Composer |
| 9 | John Sebastian | Composer |
| 10 | Declan Sinnott | Producer |
| 11 | Traditional | Composer |
| Quality | Format | Encoding | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | MP3 | 320kps 44.1kHz | MP3 is an audio coding format which uses a form of lossy data compression. The highest bitrate of this format is 320kbps (kbit/s). MP3 Digital audio takes less amount of space (up to 90% reduction in size) and the quality is not as good as the original one. |
| CD Quality | FLAC | 16bit 44.1kHz | FLAC is an audio coding format which uses lossless compression. Digital audio in FLAC format has a smaller size and retains the same quality of the original Compact Disc (CD). |