Dolans Presents have announced the return to Limerick of three of Ireland’s most iconic female artists. Sharon Shannon, Frances Black and Mary Coughlan are set to unite for a unique show bringing together their collective talents.
An Evening with Sharon Shannon, Mary Coughlan and Frances Black will play the Lime Tree Theatre on Thursday, September 20th.
The trio are no stranger to performing together having been an integral part of the successful Woman's Heart albums and tours. The three performers perform a set with their own musicians performing many of their greatest hits then everyone comes on stage together to finish the night.
Sharon Shannon has been a musical icon for over 20 years. Traditional Irish music is her background but she has been fearless in her musical exploration having defied genres and woven her unique style through country, French-Canadian reggae, hip-hop,dance and classical.
Sharon has collaborated, toured and recorded with Bono and Adam from U2, Steve Earle, Jackson Browne, Nigel Kennedy, Willie Nelson, John Prine, and Christy Moore. She has performed for US Presidents Clinton and Obama, entertained Irish Presidents Robinson and McAleese, and most recently Michael D. Higgins.
Sharon also performed live for President Obama when he visited Ireland in the summer of 2011 — making him the second US President that she has played for.
Several of her albums have been platinum selling and she has had Number 1 albums and singles including the Steve Earle penned The Galway Girl performed with Mundy, which was featured in the movie PS I Love You and the Bulmers TV ad campaign of 2008. She has received several industry honours including a Meteor Lifetime Achievement in 2009.
When Nanci Griffith called Frances Black “the sweetest voice of Ireland,” she was paying tribute to someone who has been one of Ireland’s best-loved and most enduring artists since the late 80s, with a string of best-selling albums, awards and other accolades behind her.
The extent of Frances’ popularity and talent has been reflected in the awards and accolades that she has received for her albums and live performances. She has twice been the recipient of one of the highest honours in Irish music, the prestigious Irish Recorded Music Association’s Best Irish Female Award, and was also delighted to receive a National Entertainment ”Personality of the Year” award, as it has always been vitally important to her to connect with her audiences during a performance.
Mary Coughlan is the only singer these shores have produced to rival the greatest of European cabaret and American jazz club blues because of one thing: her voice. She is unique in blending the whisky-blurred, smoke-seared, husky notes and laconic wit of Billie Holiday and Peggy Lee
Mary Coughlan enfolds it all in a delicious and unapologetic Irish drawl, sceptical, rueful, mournful and melting, ardent for love, all in one voice which wraps itself around Cole Porter and Jerome Kern, Elvis Presley and Joy Division, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards and sails down that long river of blues that links the Mississippi to the Liffey in her magnificent Irish brogue.
She has taken the classic standards of jazz balladry and the recent gems of rock and Irish song-writing, shaken them and offered them up anew, like jewels dripping from the deep, strewn on black velvet.
Tickets for An Evening with Sharon Shannon, Mary Coughlan and Frances Black are on sale now and can be purchased from both www.limetreetheatre.ie or from Dolans