Women's voices have been known to emote on a deeper, more conscious level than many of their male counterparts. For proof one has to look at the depth of thought and emotive heart present in the female voice. This collection of female voices from the USA, Ireland and Scotland all attempt to share the vision and degree of experience encountered by the feminine heart. The music may be diverse from Celtic to American folk and the omnipresent singer/songwriter genre but the results are impressive.

Mary McCaslin first entered my world in the middle 1980s'. In Dublin in summer '85 in a market stall in South Great George's Street I came across a copy of her 1977 vinyl album Old Friends. I had heard of her name before from her Philo albums Prairie in the Sky and Way Out West in Free Reed's mail order catalogue and the omens sounded good in dispatches. However as I had never heard her music I bought Old Friends and found an eclectic talent for songs as diverse as those penned by Utah Phillips, 30s western swing, The Beatles and The Who as well as her own material. With is homespun philosophy and quiet atmospheric arrangements; this was a work of real heart. I discovered Mary McCaslin as a talented woman so much so that Old Friends haunted my turntable. I was hooked - fast forward 12 months to 1986 and my purchase of A Life and Time issued by Flying Fish on vinyl in 1981. On the first listen apart from 'Some of Shelly's Blues' done banjo style in the NGDB vein and a Motown cover in 'You Keep Me Hanging On' the rest didn't inspire. The sound had a bigger and glossier production but it seemed to miss the informal glories of Old Friends. Now in 2006 listening to A Life and Time on CD for the purpose of this review brings back the same feelings - it has some fine moments but also some very misguided ones. Among the misguided moments are some vacuous LA style soft rock settings. These mar the effect of songs like 'Pinto Pony' for example. However help is at hand and once again McCaslin saves the day with the closer, her siren-like 'Santana Song': a quietly sublime ending to an ok album. Had the rest of her original compositions been handled similarly we could be talking about the virtues of a completely different record. Unfortunately while giving Mary McCaslin a mainstream profile, A Life and Time misses out on the homespun informality that made her so noticeable in the beginning. This album still unfortunately for me travels in the shadow of her much more worthy predecessor Old Friends.

While it is impeccably played and produced, what this record lacks is a sense of purpose and excitement. There isn't enough push in the vocal department to match the arrangements and the company with whom she mixes almost outshines her. It's a good album, no doubt about that, and anyone who catches Heidi singing with Cherish The Ladies will love it and swear undying allegiance on hearing it. However in the cold light of day it really could have been better with a bit more edge and some more daring experimentation. Heidi Talbot's future releases will be watched with interest but Karine Polwart and Kate Rusby need not have any sleepless nights yet, File Distant Future under promising but much yet to do.

If both of the previously reviewed CDs benefit in production but suffer through a dearth of quality material, then Dawn Kenny's Sound languishes in anonymous production of some superb original songs. A young woman from Ardnacrusha in Co Clare, Dawn Kenny is a songwriter in the Joni Mitchell, Sandy Denny and Laura Nyro mould with a dash of Tory Amos thrown in. Her second album Sound follows her debut Through The Loop some three years later. Again it's a collection of high quality songs full of quirks and personalised vignettes of romance, lost romance, dead romance and life issues. Musically its quiet ponderousness would have suited Sandy Denny well and it emits the same melancholia that Laura Nyro often blessed from her hand. Songs like 'January', 'Cruel World', and the closing 'Road Less Travelled On' are solid sublimely beautiful pieces of workpersonship and melodic realization -- they shine like beacons in a sea of mediocrity. Likewise her cover of The Rolling Stones' 'Ruby Tuesday' hints slightly of Melanie initially but quickly finds its own creative space and groove. Where Sound is let down is in the production values. The sound is too often one-dimensional, as is the playing. No matter how sensitive or assured the backing, you long for an edgy guitar or a rougher more gutsy production job, or even a string arrangement of the Robert Kirby or Harry Robinson standard occasionally to lift it up that extra echelon higher from the very good to the great. In short, Sound is such a good album and Dawn Kenny is such a good solid writer and singer, one who always delivers no mater what shortcomings may enfold. Her growth as a performer continues apace and caveats aside, this is a master class album in compositional quality and creative worth over commercial realisations. This woman is so good her lack of reputation mystifies me. Listen with open ears and believe - we are in the presence of a mistress whose time is quickly coming.

Katie Targett Adams is a Scottish singer and harpist whose music travels the more commercial path. Somewhere between Enya's lush Celticism and a more scholarly tones of say Barbara Dickson, K.T.A. is a more MOR styled collection than those above. It is very well produced and played, and achieves the necessary balm-like state it ought to occupy. But it is also very safe and doesn't upset any applecart or rock any cradles-not that it was the specified intention to do so. K.T.A. vaguely hints at Celtic/New Age/Easy Listening staples with material from sources as diverse as John Lennon, Robert Burns, Sarah McLachlan, Boo Hewardine and ending with 'Scotland the Brave' and 'New York New York' for good measure. The eclecticism extends to casting Dougie MacLean's 'Caledonia' as a jangly 60's pop song in a setting which would insult those familiar with the resignation of the original cut, but shows the song's versatility and survivalist instincts. For its good and often unexpected moves as above, K.T.A. still emits a sense of anonymity and lack of personalised presence in the vocal performances. K.TA. washes over the listener with the required balm and otherworldly effectiveness. In this regard it is suitable music for relaxation but it does not have a unified sound and unified vision. Like Heidi Talbot, Targett's talent isn't fully realised as yet but the sense of experimentation is there if in a muted form.

Women's voices have been known to emote on a deeper more conscientious level than their male counterparts. The four singers whose work is featured above span many different stylistic wavebands, although some occupy more commonality than others. However, their albums stand as different yet equally well intentioned and almost completely realised works of professional accomplishment.