Folk singer Mary Black for Seapoint show

He might not be the first thing you’d think when you mention Mary Black, but the renowned Dublin singer recognised David Gray’s talent before he went supernova. Back in 1997, she released her version of his song Shine from his first record.

Shine mightn’t be in her set this Saturday, March 28m, but Mary Black will be celebrating her long singing career when she plays Seapoint in Salthill. This gig was originally scheduled for February, but was postponed as Mary had a chest infection.

For the last quarter-century, Mary Black has been a dominant presence in Irish music, both at home and abroad and she has shared stages, TV shows and recording studios with some of the top names in folk music.  The San Francisco Chronicle described her as “one of the best interpretative singers around”.

At a time when many other performers preferred to stick to the well-known Irish ballads and select obvious hits from contemporary writers, Mary pushed the boundaries. She released numerous albums that achieved platinum-sales status and spawned countless hits. One of Mary’s albums – No Frontiers – spent more than a year in the Irish Top 30.

Mary has been mostly touring abroad in recent times and this show will give fans a chance to catch her in Galway. Doors are 8pm, and tickets are €30/€28 from roisindubh.net.