Irish Singer Mary Black Parts the Clouds

Irish songbird Mary Black is blessed with a voice that is pure gold. A symbol of tonal purity, her alto soars, dips and flutters with a gracefulness uncommon in this era of one-dimensional, angst-ridden wailers. It’s a glowing instrument that has long been embraced by the Irish--the veteran singer has sold more albums in her homeland than either U2 or Sinead O’Connor.

But seeking a wider audience, Black enlisted producer Larry Klein (Joni Mitchell, Shawn Colvin) for her most recent album of new material, 1997’s “Shine.” Unfortunately, the result was a generic-sounding, pop-oriented bust that turned its back on Black’s folk-based roots. The anticipated commercial payoff never materialized either--the album has sold 31,000 units, according to SoundScan.

The good news, therefore, about Black’s concert Sunday at the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts was that she and her five-piece band spent two hours doing what they do best: playing unpolished, traditional, folksy fare from the heart. It’s this side of her music that’s the focus of “Song for Ireland,” an excellent new compilation of her early, more traditional work.

A potpourri of acoustic instruments, including guitar, mandolin, accordion, fiddle, upright bass and tin whistle, provided the perfect soundtrack for Black’s emotion-filled ballads of national pride, hard times and love won and lost. Particularly noteworthy were fiddler Frank Gallagher and pianist-accordionist Pat Crowley, who seasoned many numbers with tasteful accenting and occasional spirited solos.

Black, who doesn’t write any of her material, captured the emotional thrust of other writers’ songs time after time, from the traditional ballad “The Holy Ground” to Phil Colclough’s soaring, inspirational “Song for Ireland” to Noel Brazil’s bittersweet immigrant song “Ellis Island.”

But the affable Black also had several pleasant surprises in store. Inspired by the recent peace talks in Northern Ireland, a new song, “Give a Little Now,” was a heartfelt, positive-minded anthem of hope, reconciliation and compromise. A beaming Black sang out: “You’ve got to shake yourself and wiggle from this trance / Give a little now, it’s easy if you try.”

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Black dedicated another moving selection, Sting’s “Fields of Gold,” to singer Eva Cassidy. Cassidy, a label mate of Black’s, died two years ago at 33 from melanoma. Black told the audience how she had fallen in love with the song upon hearing Cassidy’s tender version on her debut album, “Songbird.”

Black’s only missteps were the two selections from “Shine.” The Joni Mitchell-like “Nobody Lives Without Love” failed to move beyond the obvious sentiment of its title, and Paul Brady’s “I Will Be There” is a blatant rehashing of U2’s “With or Without You.”

* Mary Black performs Thursday at UCLA’s Royce Hall in Westwood. 8 p.m. $19-$34. (310) 825-2101.