A tale comes to life as it moves through the heart and voice of the teller, and here, in her debut recording Songs My Mother Taught Me, Margaret O'Carroll draws the listener in with the first note of the ethereal "She Moved Through the Fair."

The entire enchanting collection captures the great Irish tradition of storytelling through song and offers the listener the sadness of unrequited love, the despair and hope of emigration, the whimsy of fairyland and the joy of being Irish.

Margaret O’Carroll, a classically trained soprano, brings her voice to a collection of Irish parlor songs. The power of her voice gives an added dimension to these great old Irish favorites.

In The Nine Penny Fiddle, the innocence of the child who lends a leprechaun her wee red fiddle, takes on added depth because of the magnificence of her voice. The poignancy of the Irish person who longs for the loved one left at home is captured in Shannon River. The values of home espoused in The Old Turf Fire, made famous by the great John McCormack, are more naturally expressed here through the voice of the young wife. It’s a pleasant change to hear a soprano perform these songs, rather than yet another tenor.
Irish Music News, November 2002