Méav’s album The Calling takes you on a spiritual journey, a soothing aura radiates throughout the album, enlightening my mood on this cloudy Wednesday afternoon. Unlike the full-blown harmonies of Celtic Woman, Méav reveals her softer side in a more intimate record with lots of intricate details and rich arrangements.
The album opener is a flawless rendition of The First Time I Ever Saw Your Face which was originally sung by Roberta Flack. Méav added great sentiment to this already beautiful track; the high notes prickle the skin, especially when she reaches an ear-piercing note around 2.25 in the song.
The third track on the album is a light-hearted execution of Pentangle’s Light Flight. With dreamy harmonies and perfect vocals, this is one of the highlights of the album. Meav then takes on Sandy Denny’s Listen, Listen, which could actually be better than the original. Meav’s light, angelic vocals differentiate from the harsher raspier tones of Denny, an excellent rendition.
The Songline To Home is based on the original melody of Eleanor Plunkett by Turlough O’Carolan. The song begins with a sombre feel which contrasts with the previous tracks. I have never heard the original melody that this song is based on but I really enjoyed the poignant opening lyrics ‘When you open your eyes/ To another grey sky/ Do your dreams slip away?/ Do you long for the night/ When you turn from the light/ And escape from the day?’
The next rendition on the album is a charming cover of the well-known 19th century American spiritual/folk song Poor Wayfaring Stranger. There have been so many different renderings of the song but I found Meav’s to be chilling and pure.
Meav takes inspiration from WB Yeat’s famous poem The Song of Wandering Aengus to create an enchanting and uplifting song.
Black Is The Colour is the album closer and my favourite of all the renditions, sweet and soothing it is pleasing for the ears with a Jazz-like composition, Meav’s vocals are particularly entrancing on this track.
Meav hits the nail on the head with all of these renditions; she marks the songs with her individual soprano vocal and elegant charm and creates the impression that she has written these songs herself.
The Calling is perhaps the strongest solo effort of Méav. The generous amounts of spirituality and atmospheric beauty of this album promise to captivate audiences worldwide. Emma Barlow, FemaleFirst.co.uk

Méav is delighted to be appearing as a guest member with Celtic Woman in their new Christmas Special. “Home for Christmas”  is being filmed at the Helix, Dublin, on August 7th. Tickets for this event are now sold out. The show will be broadcast by PBS across the US in November and December 2013 and will also be available on DVD. The last Christmas show recorded by  Méav and Celtic Woman went platinum in CD and DVD sales –  this promises to be just as exciting, with a cast of almost 100 orchestral players and choir members on stage.

Multi-million selling world music artist Méav teams up with Grammy award-winning producer Craig Leon (Blondie, Talking Heads, Ramones, Pavarotti) to record folk-pop album The Calling.

Méav returns to her musical origins with The Calling, 12 tracks of newly written songs, folk ballads and fresh interpretations of timeless classics. Produced and co-written by the Grammy award-winning producer Craig Leon, responsible for iconic records by Blondie, Talking Heads, Ramones and Pavarotti amongst others, The Calling showcases Méav’s crystal clear voice, fusing her classical training with her folk roots.

From an early age Méav displayed an exceptional musical talent, immersed in Irish traditional music at her family home in Dublin. She went on to study classical voice, harp and piano while simultaneously studying Law at Trinity College. Her professional career was established with the Riverdance Choir, before going on to star in Lord of the Dance and embarking in three US tours with the Irish National Concert Orchestra.

This brought her to the attention of Celtic Collections who released three Méav solo albums including Celtic Journey with EMI, which debuted in the Billboard World Music top 10. In 2004, Méav was invited to be one of the five founding members of female supergroup Celtic Woman, who have sold six million records in the US and worldwide. It is remarkable that every album Méav recorded with Celtic Woman reached number 1 in the Billboard World Music Charts.

Méav left Celtic Woman in 2008 to start a family and resumed her solo career in 2010, performing to a sell-out crowd at New York’s Carnegie Hall. In 2012, Méav met legendary producer Craig Leon in Abbey Road Studios, London while working together on the score of a space film in collaboration with NASA. Despite their different musical backgrounds in pop and world music, they quickly realized that they shared a love of song-writing and ethnic music. This resulted in The Calling, a contemporary pop treatment of new songs and folk classics from Ireland, England, Scotland, Brittany, Galicia and America.

“Her presentation was coolly elegant, and her voice remarkably pure. She sang with a subtle, underlying passion”
LA Times

“Adds delicious wriggles to her renditions of traditional tunes”
New York Times

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