Mary Black, Stories From The Steeples (Blixstreet) **** (From York Press)

Mary Black, Stories From The Steeples (Blixstreet) ****

11:12am Friday 3rd February 2012 in CD reviews By Ian Sime

What Hi-Fi magazine rightly considers Mary Black’s vocal delivery to be so pure that it should be used as an audiophile benchmark for comparing sound quality of different hi-fidelity systems.

But hi-fi stores have had to rely on Black’s Eighties back catalogue for far too long. Indeed, her most recent commercial recording came in the form of a guest appearance on Steve Martin’s Five Stringed Banjo project.

Although long in the waiting, Stories From The Steeples is another gorgeous songbook of intelligent narratives, which compare favourably with Joni Mitchell and Emmylou Harris on top form.

This is gloriously simple and serene work of art, best enjoyed without distraction