Woman's heart - Still beating fast

Woman’s Heart is the biggest-selling indigenous Irish CD series of all time. The pioneering 1992 collection sold 750,000 copies at home and abroad, an extraordinary achievement by Dara Records, an independent homegrown company that had neither the financial resources nor the marketing weight of its major competitors. The album took up residence in the Irish charts for more than a year, holding the No.1 slot for more than four months. It also kick-started several solo careers and helped turn Mary Black, Eleanor McEvoy, Dolores Keane, Sharon Shannon, Frances Black and Maura O’Connell into international stars, whose popularity continues to the present day.

And there was more to come. The 1994 follow-up A Woman’s Heart 2 included most of the first album’s artists alongside Mary Coughlan and new find Sinéad Lohan. It reinforced the popularity of the brand both in Ireland and on the international market. A third collection Woman’s Heart – A Decade On in 2002 featured a collaboration between The Corrs and The Chieftains, plus Juliet Turner. An impressive international dimension was achieved via the introduction of Eva Cassidy, Alison Krauss, Emmylou Harris and Dolly Parton, the latter joining Altan for ‘Sweet By And By’.
And now we have A Woman’s Heart – Then And Now, a double CD set of over 30 tracks by some of the most talented Irish female artists around today – singers, writers and musicians who have contributed enormously to the music scene down the last three decades.
Key to the success of the first Woman’s Heart collection was its eponymous lead single ‘Only A Woman’s Heart’, penned by Eleanor McEvoy and sung as a heartfelt duet by her and Mary Black. Almost immediately, thanks in no small way to the work of Dara Records publicist Katie Brady, the single invaded Irish airspace and soon you could hardly switch on the radio without hearing it.
As McEvoy told Hot Press, she looks back with fondness to that time. “The first Woman’s Heart album turned out to be a far bigger success than anybody could have imagined at the time. It was also a terrific celebration of Irish female talent that to some extent had gone unrecognised in Ireland up to that point. It was particularly rewarding to note that the CD was as popular with male fans as female fans.
“Its success certainly provided me with a great boost to my solo career. I’d been happily playing violin in Mary Black’s band. Then I’d been signed to Geffen Records by Tom Zutaut after he’d been to one of my gigs in the Baggot Inn, before the Woman’s Heart album came out. You can imagine Tom’s astonishment over the coming months as this single from his newly signed act started to get bigger and bigger.
“It’s really extraordinary to see that the Woman’s Heart concept is still so popular, so I’m delighted to be part of the new compilation. I hope it will introduce a new crop of Irish female singers to the world, great singers and songwriters like Wallis Bird and Michele Ann Kelly. It’s only when you look through the new CD and spot their names alongside those of Gemma Hayes, Julie Feeney, Luan Parle, and others who weren’t around when the first CD came out, that you realise the real depth of singing and writing talent we have in this country.”
McEvoy has three tracks on the Now And Then set, the ubiquitous title-track, plus ‘I Hear You Breathing In’ and a song from her current album I’d Rather Go Blonde, ‘Look Like Me’.
One of the bonus cuts on the new set is Mary Black’s rich interpretation of Jimmy MacCarthy’s ‘Bright Blue Rose’. In the middle of a US tour when we caught up with her, Black too speaks fondly of the concept, echoing many of McEvoy’s sentiments. “It was great to be involved in the Woman’s Heart project back in the early nineties as it represented a great showcase for the growing strength and talent of Irish women in music. When we compiled this album we never realised the enormous impact it would have here in Ireland. It also opened doors for all of the artists involved and introduced them to new audiences around the world.”
A Woman’s Heart – Then And Now features that original ground-breaking CD from 1992, as well as bonus tracks from the six featured artists, alongside a brand new CD that spotlights an eclectic mix from a newer generation of Irish female singers, including Imelda May, Lisa Hannigan, Wallis Bird, Gemma Hayes, Cathy Davey, Julie Feeney, Luan Parle and Roisin O. As an added attraction, Michele Ann Kelly sings a new song, ‘Designer Love’, specially written for the CD by herself and Paul Brady.
As Kelly told Hot Press, “Working with Paul was an absolutely extraordinary experience. Initially, it was a little intimidating since he’s got such a tremendous reputation as a songwriter! But he was so welcoming and his energy was an inspiration, all on its own. In the studio, he worked tirelessly with me to make sure the magic happened. I hope the energy and love that went into ‘Designer Love’ comes across. This has to be one of the most inspirational and exciting moments of my career.”
She can also recall the impact of the first compilation. “I remember those songs were played a lot at home. My parents had a huge record collection, full of all the classics and in particular, all things Irish. So I grew up listening to Mary and Frances, Maura O’Connell, Dolores Keane, Sharon Shannon and Eleanor McEvoy. It set a ‘gold standard’ that I aspire to in terms of my creative career.”
As if to reinforce the stature of the artists on the new CD, two of them, Gemma Hayes and Julie Feeney were also in the USA when I spoke to them. Hayes is represented by the track ‘Oliver’. Speaking from Los Angeles she reminds us that the concept raised serious issues that relate to the role of women in society in general and in the music industry in particular. Some, at the time of the original release, queried whether it was merely ghettoising women to be gathering them together on one album like this, and Hayes was one artist who at the time had some reservations about the gender issue.
“The songs and artists on the first Woman’s Heart album were great. But, to be honest, I resisted the idea that music be categorised by a particular gender. I myself wanted to be perceived as a person making music, not as a woman making music. These days I’ve become a lot more relaxed about the whole thing. I understand it’s important to get the music that I believe in out there, whether that be as part of a compilation of women’s music or of people with blue eyes!” she adds with a laugh.
Asked if she feels that a new collection is a good thing in that it might still be necessary to remind people that we have so many talented women artists in Ireland, Hayes says, “There are a lot of great women out there at the moment who are doing very well, like Imelda May, Cathy Davey, Lisa Hannigan and so on. So I see the new CD set as a celebration of their individual talent as opposed to a reminder that they all happen to be women.” 
Feeney has her song ‘Impossibly Beautiful’ here too. “From a musical career point of view I’m not sure where I was when the original Woman’s Heart album came out. I can definitely remember the huge impact it had back then. It was a real statement about the level of Irish talent that was around – and still is. There was no rubbish on it. Then when the second one arrived I remember being really impressed by Sinéad Lohan. She had a beautiful song on it called ‘Sailing By’ that I loved. Now, with the new CD, it’s really exciting to be on the same CD as great Irish singers like Cathy Davey, Lisa Hannigan, Gemma Hayes and Wallis Bird. Life is good!”
Imelda May’s ‘Big Bad Handsome Man’ is another of the stand-out new tracks, and she is more than delighted to feature on it. “I’m often asked about being a woman in the music business and all this kind of stuff. The Woman’s Heart album was terrific. It was a great influence on me to see women doing well in music, from Mary Coughlan and Mary Black who were on the first album, to others like Honor Heffernan and Sinéad O’Connor – even Hazel O’Connor, an adopted Irish woman! And Moya Brennan. I loved the first Woman’s Heart album. I remember listening to it and thinking it was a terrific idea because women had been trying in Irish music for a long, long time. Elsewhere I think it’s taken a while to catch up. But in Ireland it’s never really been like that. Women have always been quite prevalent. So it seemed like the idea was staring someone in the face for a long time – putting all these great singers on the one album. So I’m absolutely delighted and flattered to hear that I’m on the new one. Women in Irish music are really flying high. The fellas will have to catch up with us!”
Speaking of fellas, perhaps Dara Records’ boss Paul O’Reilly summed it up best when he told Hot Press, “The Woman’s Heart concept continues to fascinate music fans all over the world. There’s a noticeable upsurge in interest in a new wave of Irish female artists. It seemed like it was time to reactivate the brand and celebrate these new singers, so combining the new acts with the very first compilation means that the Then And Now collection effectively highlights the finest Irish female performers from the last three decades.”

The double-CD set A Woman’s Heart – Then And Now is released on Dara Records.