Customer Reviews

Very Best of 2

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Mary began her career in the late eighties singing mainly covers of American country songs but eventually progressed to easy-listening pop songs, always including a few Irish songs in her repertoire. Thus the first compilation of her music (Collection) contained mostly country songs (albeit in an easy listening style), while the second (Very best of) contained mostly pop songs. Only one song (Forever and ever amen) appeared on both so these two 20-track volumes provided a handy way to get Mary's best songs without buying all her albums.

Now comes this new double CD titled Very best of volume 2, a slightly misleading title as it contains nearly all the tracks that were on the original Very best of, together with a fair number of tracks previously released on Collection. So fans who have those two collections do not need this, but there are plenty of people who have yet to discover the wonderful music of Mary Duff and this is the ideal package.

Taking the country music first, it is clear that Mary is a huge fan of Kathy Mattea (she covered Goin' gone, Walk the way the wind blows and Eighteen wheels and a dozen roses, all included here) and Dolly Parton (she covered Yellow roses, Silver and gold and Chicken every Sunday, of which the first two are included here). Other great country songs here include I'll be your San Antone rose (originally recorded by Dottsy, but better known via Emmylou's cover), Love someone like me (Holly Dunn), Are you teasing me (Louvin brothers), Once a day (Connie Smith), Forever and ever amen (Randy Travis), Somewhere between (Merle Haggard), Crazy (Patsy Cline), Tonight we just might fall in love again (Hal Ketchum) and End of the world (Skeeter Davis).

Those looking for some Irish songs will be pleased to see that Fields of Athenry, Beautiful Meath and Cliffs of Doneen are all included here.

Her later music includes a number of songs hitherto unknown to me, so these may be original songs, which is great (my favorite of these is Wounded hearts), but there are a few covers of famous pop songs here including Power of love (previously successful for Jennifer Rush, Air Supply, Laura Branigan and Celine Dion), More than I can say (Bobby Vee) and Amazing grace.

It would be remiss of me not to mention Daniel O'Donnell, who duets on some of the songs here, though all his fans will already have these duets on the duets album (Timeless) that Daniel and Mary recorded together.

Mary has always been a great singer. Now that she is placing less reliance on covers of famous songs, perhaps she will gain the wider recognition that she deserves, though I confess that I love those covers - Mary sings them as well as (and sometimes better than) the originals.

Mary Duff is no doubt one of the finest Irish performers to come along in recent years. Her ability to sing any style of music so effortlessly is truly remarkable. Her duets with Daniel O'Donnell, Vaya Con Dios, I Heard The Bluebirds Sing, and the gospel favorite, Whispering Hope have to be heard to be truly appreciated. When she does "Walk The Way The Wind Blows" you have to listen closely to realize that it is not Kathy Mattea performing. She has a truly amazing ability to sound so much like the original artist. I was fortunate to see her show recently with Daniel O'Donnell in Winnipeg MB Canada. When she performed "Amazing Grace" with her powerful voice it was truly an experience of a lifetime. If you ever get a chance to see this show live you will never regret it. This CD of course is the next best thing to the live show. At first it appears a bit pricey, but since it is a double CD (40 SONGS) it is very good value for the money. I can honestly say that there is not one bad song on the whole collection. It covers many styles of music from old country to gospel to easy listening. If you are a Mary Duff fan you will want to add this to your collection, and if you are not a fan yet, now is the time to be.

I cannot add a lot to the other reviews, except to say that this is a great introduction to Mary's singing. It contains a few duets with Daniel O'Donnell, with whom she tours in the US and internationally, and those are some of their best duets together...my favorites at any rate. Whispering Hope is her personal favorite, and Somewhere Between is a stunning rendition, but where Mary really shines IMHO is on the breathtaking versions of Cliffs of Dooneen and Amazing Grace. Will give you 'goose bumps' to hear her sing those! And her voice is so versatile, I also love her rendition of More Than I can Say and Crazy [she rivals Patsy Cline here] I think this is good value for the great list of songs here. I don't think you can go wrong getting this. I'd give it TEN stars if I could!

This is an excellent product. The quality of this CD is as good as when we saw Mary Duff in person. Great songs, good quality production and easy listening.