A WOMAN’S HEART (The Point, Dublin)

FILING INTO a crowded Point Depot for the second of this run of five shows featuring what is fast becoming a national institution, I was a little wary. Despite the pedigree of the artists involved and the consummate consistency of the two A Woman’s Heart albums, thoughts like “overexposure”, “milking it for all it’s worth” and “going through the motions one more time,” crept into mind.

Another fear related to the more practical hassles associated with these multi-artist events: interminable delays between acts, sound problems and irritating bouts of instrument tuning – all of which can break up the flow and continuity of such shows. I needn’t have worried. Gaps between acts were five minutes at the most and a clever sharing of musicians from the various bands ensured a smooth transition between the five artists. It was patently a more ambitious and bigger budget event than some of the other A Woman’s Heart conglomerations that have toured the country over the past couple of years.

Dolores Keane kicked off proceedings, her powerful presence and strong commanding voice sounding better then ever on numbers like ‘My Love Is In America’ and the energetic title track to her last album, Solid Ground.

Maura O’Connell greeted the audience with a cheery “howdy” before reminding herself that she wasn’t in Nashville, reverting quickly to a more homely “how are ye?” Despite suffering from a bout of the flu she still mustered up enough emotional energy to make ‘Summerfly’ and ‘Trouble In The Fields’ highlights of the show. The poignant ‘Blue Train’ from her recent album Blue Is The Colour Of Hope proved another showstopper while demonstrating her growing affinity with American music.

Next up was Frances Black — easily the most popular personality with the audience. Opening with the plaintive ‘Wall Of Tears’ and continuing with ‘Don’t Be A Stranger’ she could do no wrong. An unaccompanied version of Ewen MacColl’s biting anti-exploitation ballad ‘Legal Illegal’ was cheered loudly while she left them begging for more with her biggest hit, Christie Hennessy’s ‘All The Lies That You Told Me’.

Sharon Shannon’s infectious energy got toes tapping and hands clapping with a brace of reels before taking up the fiddle for some tunes from Shetland which “we have no names for”. She grinned mischievously on more rhythmically dynamic numbers like ‘Sparky’ and ‘Mighty Sparrow’ while her band was nicely augmented by Richie Buckley and Carl Geraghty on sax, lending a curious acid-jazz flavour to her trad melange.

The final set from Mary Black was easily the slickest. A major artist in every sense of the word, she has never been as assured and confident with her material as she is today. Mixing favourites like ‘No Frontiers’ and ‘Flesh And Blood’ with a sparsely accompanied Billie Holiday ballad and a promising version of a Four Men & A Dog song, ‘Joh’, her set was all too short. New talent Sinéad Lohan came on briefly for a highly creditable performance of ‘Sailing By’ — her contribution to A Woman’s Heart 2.

The progesterone level rose to a peak when all five came out for the finale which included the inevitable ‘Woman’s Heart’ and a defiant ‘Sisters Are Doing It For Themselves’.

Brilliant. Now how about a live album?

• Colm O’Hare