No Frontiers

Mary Black, well known for mixing genres by combining traditional as well as contemporary material, chooses a far more mainstream route on NO FRONTIERS. Using the more popular periods of Bonnie Raitt and Natalie Merchant as her blueprint, Black clearly seems to be casting out a wider net as she explores the elusive mystery of love. Working this time with guitar, saxophone, and piano instead of her characteristic accompaniment of fiddles and pipes, she sings the lives of lonely people who may not yet have found their own voice.
The title track is luminously sung, imploring everyone to always keep their hearts open, without any boundaries and continues along on that upbeat and hopeful vibe. The Burt Bacharach/Hal David pop standard "Say a Little Prayer" (done without the usual sense of irony) is the album's highlight, bouncy, harmonious, and uplifting. Black makes it her own. NO FRONTIERS is a neatly packaged paean of love.|