Irish at its best
This album from Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh, singer from top Irish band Danu, is pure delight. Featuring an excellent cast of musicians including guitar whiz Gerry O'Beirne who wrote two of the songs including the ever-popular Western Highway, Muireann's gentle voice beguiles in a mostly traditional selection in English and Gaelic. The renditions of the well-known Banks of the Nile and The Parting Glass as well as lesser-known numbers like Isle of Malachy and Emigrant's Farewell are all unpretentious and in true traditional style. Her version of Western Highway will be hard to beat. The album also features a couple of stirring instrumentals for variety. Only one contemporary styled track, Persuasion, seems a little out of place.

The warm recording allow Muireann's voice to shine, even if the microphone placement varies a little from track to track. With fine arrangements, this is really first-class music-making, recommended for serious lovers of Irish folk music.

Daybreak is Ground Breaking and Heart Breaking
This debut album features a fantastic mix of traditional tunes, modern covers and mournful ballads. Having seen Muireann in concert with Danu, I purchased the album anticipating the heart rendering vocals and furiously fast whistling she brought to that band, but her range and song list far surpassed my expectations. Plus, there's stand in apperances by Shane McGowan (Guitar) and Oisin McAuley (Fiddle/Backing Vocals). Excellent tunes, a must have.

Muireann is wonderful
This CD is wonderful. From new music to traditional, Muireann (pronounced Mwi-ren) puts her own touch on it. I have listened to the entire CD perhaps 20 times and never tire of her delightful voice. The tunes go through my head all day long some days. Her tin whistle is amazing as well.

wonderful voice
Muireann has one of those amazing Celtic voices. Her songs seem a bit more energetic with Danu, rather than solo, but this CD has a wonderful mix of songs. If you like her, also consider music by Deante.

In the steps of Sandy Denny
After two records with Danú, and songs on a record in which each band member made separate contributions, this is the logical next step. Compared to Sandy Denny, Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh also entered a young ensemble of talented musicians and steered it in a more accessible, if less daring, direction. Like Denny, Nic Amhlaoibh possesses a clear, pleasant, and steady voice suited to both traditional and MOR soft rock tunes. Also, she favors interpretations of efforts by contemporary songwriters along with a selection of traditional and traditionally- inspired tracks. Fairport Convention moved under Denny first into folk-rock and then continued with it even as Denny grew restless and left to craft a folk-pop blend suiting her gentle delivery. Suitably, this album includes the traditional song "The Banks of the Nile," first made famous when Denny covered it with her post-Fairport mates in Fotheringay. Nic Amhlaoibh has shifted Danú from a fiery, all-male traditional group into a band whose songs increasingly resembled Denny's own more intimate solo work. Gerry O'Beirne plays guitar on the two tracks he wrote, "Western Highway," which as sung by Maura O'Connell had appeared on the RTÉ "Bringing It All Back Home" series and album, and "The Isle of Malachy." "Persuasion," written by Richard Thompson and Tim Finn, likewise continues the association of Fairport and contemporary singer-songwriter folk-rockers with her own intentions to make an album still rooted in mostly traditional songs, both in English and Irish, but with enough popular tunes to appeal to a wider audience.

Nic Amhlaoibh's versions recall O'Connell in her wistful, almost casual approach. The songs on Daybreak avoid drama, and Nic Amhlaoibh is content to create more of a lingering sense of calm. Despite the presence of Shane McGowan's guitar on five tracks, little intensity emerges. This is a consistent and polished album, but designed for those listeners seeking less concentration on only traditional Irish tunes, while not as dramatic a shift into MOR as earlier singers as Denny and O'Connell themselves made in earlier decades. But Nic Amhlaoibh's next album, if judging from the sheen applied to this self-produced collection, may reveal such a transition from trad to folk to pop. (Review appeared on rootsworld.com)