This is an excerpt from the print edition of Dirty Linen #128 (February/March 2007).
The full article is in the magazine, available on newsstands, by subscription, and at the Dirty Linen webstore.
by Kerry Dexter
At times over the last six years, Mary Black thought that her 1999 recording Speaking With the Angel might turn out to be her last album. "That's not to say I wasn't doing work," the Irish singer said. She continued to tour internationally, and released a concert DVD, a short biographical documentary, and double-CD "best of" project. "But I was actually feeling at one stage, maybe this a natural wind-down. Maybe there isn't going to be another album. I mean, we all have to hang up our boots at some stage. Is this what's really happening? Because I couldn't get really excited about going back into the studio for a long time. And I didn't want to do it for the wrong reasons -- because it was expected, or because the record company was asking me. I wanted to do it because I had that hunger to do it."
She found the source of that desire in a familiar place: the music of a friend.
This is an excerpt from the print edition of Dirty Linen #128 (February/March 2007).
The full article is in the magazine, available on newsstands, by subscription, and at the Dirty Linen webstore.
![[cover #128]](/linen/128/cover128t.jpg)
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